Appalachian State Eliminates UNCG, 6-4

Game 5: #6 Appalachian State 6, #2 UNCG 4
(UNCG eliminated)
Box Score
SoCon Tournament Central

CHARLESTON, S.C. - In the first elimination game of the 2011 Bennett Hospitality Southern Conference Baseball Championship presented by the Carolina Ford Dealers, the No. 6 seed Appalachian State Mountaineers upset No. 2 seed UNCG, 6-4, to knock the Spartans out of contention for the tournament title.

The Mountaineers (32-26) move on to play the loser of the Furman-Samford game played later today. ASU will take the field in its second elimination game tomorrow at 3 p.m. Live stats and video will be available on SoConSports.com. UNCG finishes its season 34-20.

Picking up the win for ASU was Will Helms (4-0), who pitched only a third of an inning, giving up one hit and recording his only out via strikeout. Taylor Miller closed out the Spartans for his 12th save of the year. Miller threw two innings with one strikeout and allowed a solo hit. UNCG starter Colby Hyatt went 6.1 innings and gave up five runs, three of which were earned and picked up the loss to fall to 8-3 on the year.

"Well I thought we showed a lot of guts," said ASU head coach Chris Pollard. "We showed a lot of resilience. We talk a lot about that word with our club, and I am just really, really proud of our guys."

Trey Holmes knocked in two of the Mountaineer runs on his 2-for-3 day at the plate. Leading the offensive attack for UNCG was centerfielder Bobby Martin, who went 3-for-5 with an RBI.

Appalachian State jumped out to an early three-run lead with a run in the first inning and two in the fourth. The Mountaineers capitalized on a UNCG fielding error in the fourth to plate the two unearned runs when Daniel Kassouf and Will Callaway crossed the plate.

UNCG broke through on the scoreboard in the top of the fifth as Martin singled to left center to send Kris Richards home and record his 25th RBI on the season and second of the tournament.

The Spartans' bats came alive again in the seventh when they struck for three runs on five hits to take the 4-3 advantage over the Mountaineers. UNCG used RBI doubles from Thomas Troelstrup and Martin, and Ray Quinones contributed with an RBI single to round out the Spartan scoring in the inning.

Appalachian State would not trail for long as a sacrifice fly by Holmes and a two-out RBI single from Jack Myers scored two Mountaineer runs and pushed ASU back on top, 5-4.

ASU added an insurance run the bottom of the eighth when the Spartan pitching staff had difficulty locating the strike zone with two outs, as relievers Jarett Miller and Brandon Browne combined to throw 16-straight balls and walk in the final run of the game.