Finally! Baseball notch wins over Cats 
Chris Boyce Varsity Sports 

The disastrous 21-game losing streak for ASU baseball is finally history after the Mountaineers won two out of three games against Western Carolina last weekend in Boone. 

The Mountaineers won the first game of a doubleheader on Saturday at Red Lackey Field 5-2 and went on to defeat the Catamounts in the third game on Sunday, 13-12. Western Carolina won the second game 12-6 in 10 innings. 

In the opener, Appalachian earned its first win of the season behind the pitching of freshman Tyson Blocker. Blocker (1-3) earned his first collegiate win, pitching a complete game, as he allowed just two ninth inning runs, while scattering five hits. Blocker did not walk a batter and struck out four, facing just 31 batters in the contest. 

Chris Behne led the Mountaineers with three hits off of WCU starter Wesley Overbay (2-5) and Luke Little drove in a pair of runs with two doubles to give the Mountaineers the victory. Rod Goldston drove in both WCU runs with a ninth inning home run.  

On Sunday, Appalachian State scored three runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to record a 13-12 win over Western Carolina. Appalachian is now 2-21 overall and 2-6 in Southern Conference action, while the Catamounts fall to 6-19 overall and 3-9 in league play. 

With one out in the bottom of the ninth inning, Kevin Jones reached on an error and moved to third on Chris Behne’s single. Jones scored on an infield groundout by Mike Lee before Marko Little singled in Behne to tie the game. Robbie Huffstetler then doubled to left field, scoring Little from first with the game-winning run. 

Appalachian opened the scoring with two runs in the first inning, but Western Carolina scored eight unanswered runs for an 8-2 lead entering the bottom of the fourth inning. Appalachian cut the lead to 8-5 in the fourth before WCU took a 12-5 lead entering the bottom of the sixth inning. The Mountaineers scored eight runs in the last four innings for the win. 

Ryan Kelly (1-3) earned his first win of the season with four and one-third innings of two-hit relief. Saturday’s game two winner, Ryan Basner (1-2), got the loss in relief for the Cats. 

Lee led the Mountaineers with three hits and three RBIs. Behne, Little and Huffstetler also had three hits in the win, including two doubles by Huffstetler. Alan Beck had three hits for Western and Rod Goldston hit his third home run in as many games, a solo shot to right field in the third inning. 

Appalachian has now won two of its last three games. 

The 19 hits by the Mountaineers are the most this season. 

The Mountaineers return to Red Lackey Field this Saturday for a doubleheader against Wofford. 
 

News and Notes around the Mountain 
Wrestlers fare  well at NCAA's 
Mountaineers 'Buck'ed out of Southern Regionals 
Golf swings a sixth place finish in Summerville S.C. 
Women's tennis continues their mastery of the net 

Wrestlers fare  well at NCAA's 
Compiled from ASU SID 

The ASU wrestling team saw P.J. Boccia and Jeremy Hart conclude their seasons at the Kiel Center in St. Louis during the NCAA Championships. 

The Southern Conference 141-pound class champion Jeremy Hart, won his first-round match over ninth-ranked Sean Gray of Virginia Tech 5-4. The one-point decision improved Hart’s consecutive victories to 25. 

Boccia fell 9-1 in defending All-American Brett Matter in the first- round contest of the 157-pound weight class. Matter, the second seed at 157 pounds, went on to claim the 157 title. Boccia won the Southern Conference championship with a 2-1 overtime victory against VMI’s Ian Kaplan. 

Kaplan later lost to Fresno State’s Tim Cornish 6-2. Boccia concludes the season with a 15-13 record. 

Hart lost his second match 9-7 to eighth-seeded Carl Perry of Illinois. In his first match of wrestle backs, Hart pinned Blaise Mucci of Pittsburgh five minutes and 51 seconds into the contest to move on to the round of 32. 

The MacArthur, W.Va., native dropped his final match in the tournament 7-6 to Mike Castillo of Michigan State. Hart ended the season with an impressive 30-4 final mark. 
 

Mountaineers 'Buck'ed out of Southern Regionals 
Compiled from many sources 

Appalachian State could not overcome a sluggish start as they fell to Ohio State 87-61 last Friday night in the South Regional in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Scoonie Penn scored 23 points to lead the Buckeyes. 

The third-seeded Buckeyes (23-6) scored on 11 of their first 12 possessions to take a 23-7 lead against the Mountaineers. The lead was 21 points at the half and was never below 16 points in the second half. Ohio State fell in the next round to Miami (Fla.). 

Penn was nine for 11 from the field, hitting five of seven three-pointers. Michael Redd added 21 points for Ohio State, and George Reese had 19. Tyson Patterson led Appalachian State with 15 points, and Rufus Leach scored 11. 

The Buckeyes shot 58 percent (34-of-59), including nine of 15 on three-point attempts. The Mountaineers shot just 39 percent. 
 

Golf swings a sixth place finish in Summerville S.C. 
Compiled from ASU SID 

After leading with only six holes to play, the Appalachian State men’s golf team finished sixth out of 15 teams in the Citadel Invitational golf tournament in Summerville, S.C. 

“Right now we are very disappointed,” said coach Bill Dicus. “This is the second week in a row we have been leading during the final round, not being able to finish strong. Sometimes you have to learn to win.” ASU trailed first round leader High Point by two after first round action. “But we knew Elon (College) was the team to beat,” said Dicus, in his fifth year of coaching the men’s team. 

“We were tied with them after yesterday. We started well, catching High Point and putting Elon down by four on the front nine. But we lost our momentum on (hole) 12 and couldn’t get it back.” 

The Mountaineers finished sixth, 14 strokes behind eventual winner Elon. This marked the fifth time in seven tournaments for ASU that they played in the final pairing for the last round of a tournament.  “That is one of our goals each tournament,” said Dicus.  “You have to be in the top three to play in the final wave. Now we just have to find a way to be successful.” 

Thus far the Mountaineers have won one tournament to date, the Bulldog Invitational at Gardner-Webb University, and have finished no worse than sixth in five others. Bern Gregory, a senior from Wilkesboro, led the Mountaineers with a third place individual finish of 76-74 for a 150 total. 

ASU next competes in Campbell University’s Lonnie Small Invitational on April 3 and 4. 
 

Women's tennis continues their mastery of the net 
Brian Meadows Varsity Sports 

The Mountaineer women’s tennis team won two of the three doubles contests, but lost all six singles competitions en route to a 7-2 defeat at Winthrop. 

The number one tandem of Vanessa Manicom and Tonya Eberhart battled to win by a score of 8-5 in the top contest. The number two team of Alex Chong and Allison Lane utilized an impressive performance to win 8-2. 

The team of Jennifer Fayad and Donna Altenburger just missed giving the Mountaineers a sweep of all three doubles contests. Fayad and Altenburger lost 8-6. 

On the singles side, Manicom jumped out to an early advantage and won her first set 6-1, but she lost the second set in a tiebreaker 7-6. Manicom’s third set saw her lose 7-4. 

Eberhart lost 6-3, 6-3 in the second singles position. Lane and Chong each lost in straight sets, 7-5, 6-0 and 6-1, 6-0 at the number three and four spots, respectively. Fayad claimed the first set at the fifth flight by a score of 6-1 before dropping the second and third sets 6-2 and 6-3. April Fitzsimmons lost at the sixth position by the scores of 6-2 and 6-4. The Apps take to the courts again on Saturday, March 11, at Charleston Southern. Match time is scheduled for 10 a.m. 
 

News and Notes around the Southern Confrence 
Furman 'Volunteers' a new record to Womens  Tournament 
Mountain  Dew SoCon  Tourney one of the best 
Lady Mocs fall in second round of WNIT Tournament 
The Citadel and UNCG boast players of the week 

Furman 'Volunteers' a new record to Womens  Tournament 
Compiled from SOCONSPORTS 

Semeka Randall scored 17 points as top seeded Tennessee defeated 16th seed Furman 90-38 on Saturday night in the opening round of the Mideast regionals in the NCAA Women’s Championship Tournament. 

Second-ranked Tennessee broke out early and never let the Southern Conference champions catch up, holding the Lady Paladins to the fewest points in coach Sherry Carter’s 18 seasons.  With eight minutes left in the first half, the Lady Vols (29-3) were up 34-4 and Furman (20-11) had managed only one field goal in 20 tries, a five percent average. 

The Lady Vols went the full length of the court on a  defensive rebound and pass by Tamika Catchings to  Kristen Clement to Randall for a layup that gave Tennessee a 50-14 lead at halftime. 

Tennessee kept the pressure up in the second half, holding Furman to a single field goal for nearly 12 minutes. 
 Tennessee’s largest lead, 87-23, came on a layup by Kyra Elzy with 4:23 remaining. Randall was one of four Lady Vols in double figures. Catchings had 14 points and 14 rebounds, Gwen Jackson had 14 points and Kara Lawson added 10. 

Torrie Scott led the Lady Paladins with 10 points on three of 14 shooting. Jackie Smith, the team’s leading scorer averaging 18 points a game, was held to five points. 

Tennessee scored 29 points off 21 Furman turnovers and shot 53 percent (32-of-60) for the game to Furman’s 20 percent (13-64), the lowest field goal percentage of any team in the history of the 19-year-old NCAA tournament. 
 

Mountain  Dew SoCon  Tourney one of the best 
Compiled from SOCONSPORTS 

The 2000 Mountain Dew Southern Conference basketball tournament ranked among the national leaders when the turnstiles stopped spinning and conference tournaments ended. The Southern Conference Tournament, held at the BI-LO Center in Greenville, S.C., drew 34,274 fans during the six sessions held from March 2-5. 

The turnstile count of 34,274 was the 11th highest count of the 29 conference tournaments held in 2000. The Atlantic Coast Conference led the nation in attendance as it drew 119,475 fans for its five sessions at Charlotte, an average of 23,895 per session. 

The ACC was followed by the Big 10, Big 12, Southeastern, Big East, Conference USA, Mountain West, Missouri Valley and Atlantic 10 Tournaments. 

 The Southern Conference’s average attendance of 5,712 fans per session ranked 14th among the 29 conferences. In total fan attendance, the Southern Conference finished higher than the Western Athletic Conference, the Mid-American Conference and the Colonial Athletic Association. 

The Southern Conference also drew better than the America East, Mid-Eastern, West Coast, Big Sky, Big West, Ohio Valley, Big South, Midwestern, Southwestern, Patriot, Southland, Northeast, Mid-Continent, Sun Belt and Trans America conferences. 

The 34,274 total attendance figure is believed to be a Southern Conference record as was the single session attendance figure of 10,445 during Saturday’s men’s semifinals. Records are available dating back to the 1991 tournament. The previous high for tournament attendance was 23,817 for five sessions in 1993 when the tournament was held at the Asheville Civic Center. The highest previous single session attendance record was 6,754 for the semifinals in 1993. 
 

Lady Mocs fall in second round of WNIT Tournament 
Compiled from SOCONSPORTS 

The Georgia Tech women’s basketball team scored eight of the game’s final 10 points to end Tennessee-Chattanooga’s record-setting season with a 81-74 victory in the second round of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament (NIT) on Saturday night at The McKenzie Arena in Chattanooga, Tenn. before a record crowd of 3,544 at the Arena. 

Tech held a 73-72 lead with 1:28 remaining before scoring eight consecutive points to put the game out of reach. In the game-deciding run, Danielle Donehew and Milli Martinez each made field goals and Martinez teamed up with Nina Barlin to convert on four free-throw attempts. 

 Chattanooga had an opportunity to tie the contest at 75, but freshman Tishay Lewis missed an open three-point attempt that could have tied the score. 

 With the win, the Yellow Jackets (17-13) advanced to the quarterfinals of the Women’s NIT after beating UTC for the 12th straight time. 

Chattanooga concludes the year 26-5, tying for the best record in school history that was previously set in 1984-85. 

 Five Yellow Jackets scored in double figures as Martinez led the way with 20. For the Lady Mocs, Nneka Irons and Heather Dykes scored 13 points. 

Georgia Tech played solid defense to hassle UTC into 37.9 percent shooting from the field. Damita Bullock, who was averaging 18.7 points per game and had scored in double figures in every game this season, was held to a career-low seven points on three of 14 shooting. The Yellow Jackets outrebounded Chattanooga 44-34 and shot 54.8 percent for the game. 
 

The Citadel and UNCG boast players of the week 
Compiled from SOCONSPORTS 

The Citadel first baseman Philip Hartig and UNC Greensboro pitcher Taft Cable have been named the Southern Conference Player and Pitcher of the Week, respectively. 

For the week, Hartig, from Asheville, hit .640 with 16 hits in 25 at bats. The junior first baseman scored nine runs and drove in 14 while collecting three doubles, three triples and a home run. Hartig’s big game came on March 15 against Navy, when he went six for six. He was seven for 14 with five RBIs during the Bulldogs’ sweep of the Southern Conference series with Wofford over the weekend. 

 Cable, originally from Brown Summit, won two games for the Spartans on the week. The sophomore righthander picked up a win against Davidson with three innings of work on Saturday. 

He picked up another win, in extra innings, on Sunday with four innings of work against the Wildcats in  which he allowed just one hit and struck out seven without allowing a walk or a run. For the week, Cable was 2-0 with 13 strikeouts in 8.2 innings of work, allowing four hits and just four walks. 
 
 

 Return To Top