TBR member's son 2012 season

Missed it by that much!

My son was trying for another cycle, but the ball was caught on the warning track in Left Center Field. A little more wind, a little less air, a few more Wheaties, or a couple of extra days in the weight room may have done it, but this one fell 10' short.

These App boys are fun to watch!


Baseball Downs Duke for Eighth-Straight Win
Courtesy: Appalachian Sports Information
Release: Wednesday 03/07/2012 (ET)

BOONE, N.C. — Appalachian State University baseball scored all six of its runs with two outs and matched school and Southern Conference records by turning five double plays in a 6-4 win over visiting Duke on Wednesday evening at Beaver Field at Jim and Bettie Smith Stadium.

A boisterous crowd of 812 — the largest mid-week attendance in Smith Stadium history — saw Appalachian (10-2) extend its winning streak to eight games and beat Duke for the first time in 37 years.

The Mountaineers, which came into the contest hitting .315 with two outs, was a spectacular 9-for-18 with two away on Wednesday evening to raise its already lofty average with two outs to .338 on the season.

The two-out fireworks began in the first inning when Will Callaway singled, stole second and scored on Daniel Kassouf’s opposite-field RBI single to give ASU an early 1-0 lead.

The Mountaineers did the majority of their damage an inning later when Tyler Zupcic hit a two-out, two-strike, two-run home run to left field to stretch the advantage to 3-0. The two-out rally was far from over, however, as the Apps strung together three more hits, capped by Tyler Tewell’s bases-clearing triple to right field that gave Appalachian a commanding 5-0 lead.

Duke (7-8) chipped away at the five-run deficit with two runs in the fourth, one in the sixth and one in the seventh but the Mountaineers mustered yet another two-out rally to add an all-important insurance run in the eighth. With it looking like ASU would take a slim 5-4 advantage into the ninth inning, Tewell and Jeremy Dowdy put together back-to-back doubles, the latter of which brought Tewell home from second to give the Apps a much more comfortable 6-4 lead.

The insurance run ultimately proved to be unnecessary in the ninth when, after a leadoff infield single, closer Nathan Hyatt induced the Blue Devils to hit into their fifth double play of the night to end the ballgame. The Mountaineers’ five double plays, all of which were started by Callaway at shortstop, marked just the 13th time in SoCon history that a team turned five twin-killings in one game. Appalachian had only accomplished the feat once before, during a 9-5 SoCon Tournament win over Western Carolina on April 24, 1984.

In addition to the record-setting performance in the middle of the infield, the middle of Appalachian’s batting order also came up big in Wednesday’s victory. ASU’s No. 3-7 hitters (Callaway, Kassouf, Tewell, Dowdy and Noah Holmes) all had multiple hits, combining for 12 of the Mountaineers’ 14 hits on the evening. Tewell led the way, falling just a home run shy of hitting for the cycle in a 3-for-5, two-RBI performance. Kassouf also went 3-for-5 with an RBI while Zupcic matched Tewell’s two runs driven in.

Backed by the spectacular defense, true freshman Jeffrey Springs pitched five solid innings (7 H, 2 ER, 2 K) to earn his first collegiate win. Thanks to the fifth and final double play of the evening, Hyatt faced the minimum in the ninth to earn his fifth save.

Jeff Kremer, Grant McCabe, Jordan Betts and Anthony D’Alessandro had two hits apiece to lead Duke.

 

Olen Little got his first conference start on Saturday pitching the seven inning game of Wingate's DH at Newberry. Olen pitched 4.2 scoreless innings giving up three hits and striking out four. This extended his scoreless streak to 11.2 innings. We are very proud of Olen. He has worked hard to earn the move to the starting rotation and he is making the most of it.

 

Great Weekend

Special feeling for my wife and I Saturday as we saw our son start his 1st college game! We were proud as peacocks (or should I say SeaHawks)! UNCW swept pre-season conference favorite James Madison in Wilmington.

 

East Meck Boys

Y'all have been heard about Olen, who is having a bang-up sophomore season down at Wingate. Way to go Olen! His former Eagle teammates are also doing Coach Koppe proud. David Daniels got his first collegiate hit for the Davidson Wildcats in his first big start against Appalachian State this weekend, ripping a Double. His brother Leighton is starting in the infield (he's played both 2nd and 3rd) for the Winthrop Eagles. Finally, Lou Trosch has pitched 17.1 innings for Guilford College. So far, he's only yielded 1 run on his way to a 2-0 start.

 

I've had the honor of playing with these guys over the past years, and its been a pleasure knowing the East Meck crowd. Always hard workers. I wish them continued success at the college level.

 

And he absolutely knocked the stuffing out of that ball. One of the hardest hit balls all day!

 

was beginning to wonder......

if my son would ever break out of his early season, very long hitting slump.

I know he has been frustrated beyond belief, but he has hung in there and kept working hard. That determination finally paid off today and did so in a big way as Gardner Webb traveled to Chapel Hill to play UNC.

He was 3-4 with a HR, Triple (tossed out at home going for in-park HR), Double, Walk, 5 RBI (gw rbi), 1 run scored as GWU beats UNC 7-4 for their first ever win over the tarheels.

 

That is terrific! Big day helping to a big win makes everything great!

 

HOT START FOR YOUNG CATAMOUNTS:
– Freshman Jacob Hoyle enters the weekend ranked
EIGHTH in the Southern Conference in batting average at
.391 ... He is also 10th in slugging percentage (.594) while
his team-best 28 RBI currently leads the Southern Conference
and rank him THIRD in the NCAA ... Hoyle went 4-for-5
with two doubles and three RBI in his first collegiate game
against Fordham; (From WCU Game Notes 3/16/12).

Jacob was in consideration for SoCon player of the week twice and for player of the month for February.

Makes a dad proud!

 

Congrats to Brad and the whole GW team.