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Mountaineers Complete Series Sweep of Wofford With 6-0 Shutout on Sunday, Move to 32-9 Record (16-5 in SoCon)

Photo by Aimee Moore and courtesy of Appalachian Sports Information

April 30, 2012. SPARTANBURG, S.C. — Appalachian State University baseball finished off a three-game sweep of Southern Conference rival Wofford with a 6-0 win on Sunday at Russell C. King Field at Switzer Stadium.

The Mountaineers (32-9, 16-5 SoCon) picked up their 13th-straight victory against the Terriers (17-26, 5-16 SoCon) and have swept four consecutive three-game series against Wofford. ASU also picked up its first conference road-series win this year after dropping two-of-three in each of its previous two SoCon road series.

In what turned out to be a pitcher’s duel early, the Apps would snag an early 1-0 lead when Preston Troutman (Rockwell, N.C./East Rowan) led off the third inning with a walk before advancing to third on an error and scoring on sacrifice fly from Brandon Burris (Concord, N.C./Mount Pleasant).

Rob Marcello (Royal Palm Beach, Fla./Indian River/Royal Palm Beach) held the Terriers without a hit until the bottom of the third when James Foster broke up the no-hitter with a single to center.

Wofford would find itself in position to tie the contest when David Roney drew a one-out walk and stole second with two outs in the fifth to put himself in scoring position, but Marcello would induce a groundout to end the inning and keep the one-run lead intact.

Will Callaway (Greenville, S.C./Young Harris/Eastside) led off the sixth with a single with and advanced to second on Daniel Kassouf’s (Lexington, N.C./Belmont Abbey/North Davidson) groundout to first.

A Tyler Tewell (Charlotte, N.C./Butler) single would put Callaway on third before Jeremy Dowdy (Raleigh, N.C./Wakefield) put the Mountaineers up 2-0 with a single to center field.

Appalachian would tack on two more runs in the top of the seventh after back-to-back singles and an error put runners on second and third with no outs. Burris singled up the middle in the next at bat to plate two and give the Apps a 4-0 lead.

Wofford was in position to cut into the lead when a two-out walk and a single put runners on first and second, but Marcello induced yet another groundball to short to end the seventh.

Hector Crespo (Miami, Fla./Florida Christian) and Burris would plate two more runs for the Apps in the eighth. Crespo doubled to right center to bring Noah Holmes (Rockwell, N.C./East Rowan) home before Burris’ single sent Crespo across the plate to make it 6-0.

Appalachian’s bullpen would shut things down from there as Jamie Nunn (Winston-Salem, N.C./Mount Tabor) tossed two solid innings in relief to extend ASU’s winning streak to seven games.

Marcello (6-3) picked up the win by allowing just two hits with eight strikeouts and two walks over 7.0 innings of work. Nunn allowed just one baserunner in his appearance while recording three strikeouts.

Burris led the Apps at the plate on the day with four RBI in a 2-for-3 performance. Crespo finished 3-for-5 with two runs while Callaway and Holmes each finished with two hits.

Appalachian State returns to action on Wednesday night with a non-conference matchup at 7:00 pm at East Tennessee State in Johnson City.