March 18, 2001
Mountaineers Split SoCon Doubleheader with Paladins
Appalachian Wins Suspended Game, Suffers Two-Hitter in Game Two
BOONE, N.C.-After an overnight layover, Appalachian needed one chance at-bat to defeat Furman 7-6 in a 13-inning Southern Conference baseball action. The second game was dominated by Furman's Toby David, who allowed two hits and earned the win in a 7-0 victory.
Game One featured 12 innings of action Saturday, but after four hours and 10 minutes of action it was suspended due to dark ness. Prior to the start of the 13th inning, the SoCon umpires declared the game be suspended due to darkness. Appalachian opened the scoring in the second inning with a one-out double to left field by Luke Little (Locust, N.C.) that brought home Mike Lee (Mebane, N.C.) from second base.
Furman responded with a run in the third and four in the fourth off ASU starting pitcher Ben Hager. The Mountaineers answered with two of their own in the bottom of the fourth to narrow the deficit to 5-3. The Apps scored one in the fifth and another in the sixth to tie the game at 5-5.They took the lead 6-5 in the seventh.
Furman came back in the eighth with Adam Etherington's one-out double. After an ASU pitching change, Derek Norman hit a ground ball that the ASU defense could not handle, allowing Etherington to come around to score the tying run. After a scoreless ninth, Appalachian threatened by loading the bases with one out in the 10th.
Furman's Danny Rueckel came to the rescue by moving from shortstop to pitcher and then retiring two batters to preserve Furman's hopes. With the score deadlocked at 6-6, the two sides went without scoring in the 11th and 12th innings before the game was suspended. Sunday, ASU's Tyson Blocker (Roswell, Ga.) began the 13th inning on the hill and sent the Paladins down with relative ease.
Appalachian's offense awoke in the 13th with Lee reaching on a throwing error to start the inning. After a single, a sacrifice bunt to advance the runners, and an intentional pass, pinch runner Jason Pavelchak (Boone, N.C.) scored the winning run on a fielder's choice to give ASU the win. Blocker earned the victory to go to 2-3 on the season. Rueckel received the loss to fall to 2-1, after three innings of work in which he allowed just two hits.
Sunday's Game Two, was dominated by David. The lefthander retired the Mountaineers in order in six of his nine innings.David allowed two hits, but did not record a strike out.The only mark against his efforts were three Appalachian hitters hit by pitch.
The victory improved David's record to 5-1. After going 2-for-6, with three RBIs in the first game, Furman's Derek Norman collected two hits in five at bats and scored twice Sunday. Chris Valdes went 2-for-4, scoring two runs and knocking in one run.
Furman returns home to entertain Elon, Wednesday at 3:00 p.m. Furman contin ues its home stand with a SoCon series versus VMI next Saturday and Sunday.