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Errors prove costly as Mountaineers fall to Canisius |
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Tuesday, 04 March 2008 |
by LILES NEAL
Intern Sports Reporter
After losing Friday and splitting a double-header Saturday, the Appalachian State University baseball team suffered a 9-4 loss to Canisius College Sunday to round out the four game weekend series.
The game was scoreless in the top of the fourth inning before the Golden Griffins struck, earning two runs and taking four more from ASU errors while holding the Mountaineers to just one walked runner on base in two innings.
Sophomore Matt Andress allowed just one hit and threw his fifth and final strikeout of the day to stall Canisius’ run in the top of the sixth.
Junior Cameron Ohl pitched only the top of seventh, in which the
Mountaineers allowed two runs off a double from Canisius junior Connor
Burke, as well as another unearned run from a pass ball.
ASU rallied in the bottom of the seventh to score four runs against
Canisius junior pitcher Aaron Boag before the Griffins brought in
junior Andrew Van’tWout to finish the final two and one third innings.
Although Canisius was unable to hit anything against ASU in the eighth
and ninth innings, the Mountaineers could not muster any more runs of
their own.
Appalachian head coach Chris Pollard sees the series as a learning experience and a chance for the team to grow.
“Right now we’re just trying to put all three pieces of the puzzle
together at one time,” he said. “We pitch well in stretches, we play
good defense pretty consistently until today, and we really haven’t
gotten it going yet offensively.”
Pollard is confident that once the pieces of the puzzle fit together and in sync, the team will be competitive.
“When you have a bad weekend like this, you’ve got to find the silver lining,” he said.
One such silver lining was the performance of senior Calvin Teague, who
pitched two no-hitter innings on the tail end of game four to keep the
Mountaineers alive.
“Teague had two great innings, and that’s something we can build off
of,” Pollard said. “He’s going to have to be a big part of our staff,
so we like to see him get it going like he did.”
Junior David Rubinstein and sophomore Jacob Faggart hit four-for-four.
Despite the defense’s off day, the team is fielding .975 overall.
The 1-3 series record drops the Mountaineers to 4-5 overall.
They will return to action tomorrow for a non-conference matchup at High Point University.
The team will open Southern Conference play hosting the University of
North Carolina at Greensboro for a three-game series March 21- 23.
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