Wes Hobson drove in two runs in Friday's loss at Wofford (photo courtesy of Marc DeRose) Game statistics

Baseball's Six-Game Winning Streak Snapped at Wofford
by Appalachian Sports Information

May 16, 2008 - SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Wofford used four home runs in the first four innings to jump out to an early seven-run lead and held on for a 12-7 win over Appalachian State University baseball on Friday evening at Russell C. King Field.

With the setback, Appalachian (30-24, 13-12 SoCon) had its season-best six-game winning streak snapped and missed out on a chance to clinch one of the top six seeds in next week’s Southern Conference Tournament. Thanks to Western Carolina’s doubleheader sweep at the hands of College of Charleston on Friday, ASU needs to win just one game of this weekend’s three-game series versus Wofford to clinch at least six place in the conference standings and an automatic berth in the eight-team, double-elimination portion of the SoCon Tournament field. The league’s seventh- through 10th-place teams must survive a one-game “play-in” round to join the top six teams in the double-elimination field.

The Mountaineers struck first on Friday evening when catcher Adam Beasley drove in the game’s first run with a two-out single in the top of the second. However, the Apps’ only lead of the evening would be short-lived, as Wofford’s Sterling Dye blasted a three-run homer in the bottom of the second to give the Terriers a 3-1 lead.

Appalachian knotted the score at 3-3 with a pair of runs in the top of the third, but Wofford (22-32, 5-20 SoCon) exploded for two runs in the bottom of the third and six in the fourth to grab an 11-4 advantage. The long ball did most of the damage, as Michael Gilmartin, Shane Kirkley and Mo Seay all homered for Wofford in the four-run sixth.

After the Terriers stretched the lead to eighth runs with a single tally in the sixth, ASU cut the deficit to 12-7 with a three-run eighth. However, after a leadoff double by Jason Rook, the Mountaineers went down in order in the ninth to close out the ballgame.

Appalachian ace Matt Andress surrendered 10 runs (eight earned) on 10 hits in just 3.2 innings of work to suffer his first loss in over a month and fall to 8-4 on the season.

Wofford’s Scott Summers (6-7) was pulled after just four innings of work due to the fact that he will start the Terriers’ postseason opener versus The Citadel on Tuesday but left with an 11-4 lead and collected the win. Ben Austin closed it out to earn an unconventional five-inning save, his first of the season.

Rook went 3-for-5 and Beasley and Wes Hobson drove in two runs each to lead the Mountaineers offensively.

Appalachian and Wofford close the regular season on Saturday with a doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m.