For the final time in the 2013 regular season, the Elon University baseball team went on the road, this time to Appalachian State University in Boone to take on the Mountaineers.
While Sunday’s rubber match of the series was rained out, the Phoenix split the first two games of the series with Appalachian State in dropping game one 9-1 but escaping game two with a 10-8 victory behind five perfect inning from senior starting pitcher Kyle Webb.
Scoreless through the first three and a half inning Friday in game one, the Mountaineers broke through in the bottom of the fourth against senior starting pitcher Spencer Medick when freshman second baseman Dillon Dobson grounded out to second base with the bases loaded.
Appalachian State got another run in the fifth inning when senior outfielder Will Callaway hit a sacrifice fly to right field.
Trailing 2-0, the wheels came off and the Mountaineers chased Medick from the game with a seven run sixth inning. Five of the first six batter in the inning came through with a base hit to already score three before sophomore John Antonelli came out of the bullpen to replace Medick. He got the final two outs of the inning but he did not come out unscathed. Appalachian State pushed four more runs across via a single, a sacrifice fly, an errant pickoff attempt and an error by third baseman Chris Bresnahan.
Elon’s lone run of the game came in the top of the seventh inning on an RBI-groundout by junior shortstop Antonio Alvarez to score junior first baseman Ryan Kinsella.
Medick took the loss to drop to 5-5. After winning SoCon Pitcher of the Month for the month of March, Medick has now dropped each of his last four starts with his ERA ballooning to 5.21. He ended March with a 1.76 ERA in six starts.
Sophomore Jamie Nunn was masterful on the hill for the Mountaineers going 7 1/3 innings while allowing just five hits and the one run with four strikeouts.
Game two saw the Elon bats score in each of the third, fourth and fifth innings to jump out to a 9-0 lead. All while the Phoenix were rolling through Mountaineers starter Sam Agnew-Wieland, Webb had not allowed a baserunner.
A fielder’s choice by sophomore Quinn Bower scored the first run of the game in Alvarez. A single up the middle by senior Niko Fraser scored two more and Kinsella grounded into a fielder’s choice that scored Bower, but resulted in the first out of the inning.
To increase the lead to 7-0 in the fourth inning, sophomore Wil Leathers notched his second home run of the season down the left field line to increase the lead to 7-0. Sophomore Casey Jones scored on the home run. He singled up the middle to score Alvarez just one batter before Leathers.
Two more runs came across in the fifth inning on a bunt single from Bower that scored Alvarez and a wild pitch that scored Jones.
Breezing through five innings, Webb hit a wall in the sixth inning. Helped by three errors – two from Alvarez at shortstop – the first eight batters reached to start the frame before Dodson became the first out of the inning. He, too, scored a run though in Callaway.
After another single to score the seventh run of the inning, Webb got the final two batters to ground into fielder’s choices to get out of the inning.
The bottom of the eighth inning brought the Mountaineers within one run with an RBI-groundout to junior second baseman Preston Troutman.
An insurance run came in the form of a Chris King double to left center field that scored Bresnahan in the top of the ninth inning.
With senior closer Nate Young throwing six innings and a team-high 86 pitches Tuesday April 30 against Wake Forest University, senior pitcher Andrew MacDonald came on for the final three outs to pick up his third save of the season.
Webb improved to 6-2 in going eight innings while striking out eight and walking one. Agnew-Wieland dropped to 5-5 on the year.
The win moves Elon to 24-26 and 16-10 in the Southern Conference, good for third place overall. Appalachian State fell to 25-18, 12-12 in the SoCon.
Similar to the 2012 season, Elon enters the final week of the year mathematically still alive for a conference championship, but they need help.
Sitting third behind Western Carolina University and The Citadel, respectively, the Phoenix will welcome North Carolina A&T State University to Latham Park Tuesday May 7 in the final nonconference game of the season before Samford University comes to Elon for the final weekend series of the year. Currently, Samford sits eighth in the conference at 10-13, 25-23 overall.
Western Carolina (33-17, 18-6) has two more SoCon series’ with Wofford College and Appalachian State. The Citadel (28-21, 15-9) matches up with College of Charleston and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in the final two weekends of the season.