Boone, N.C. – Appalachian State rallied to take the lead on a RBI double by Kendall McGowan, while the Warhawks had trouble solving Mountaineer starting pitcher Will Sprinkle in a 3-2 App State win on Friday afternoon at Beaver Field and Jim and Bettie Smith Stadium.
The loss snaps a four-game winning streak for ULM (15-19 overall, 5-8 Sun Belt) and gave starting pitcher Trey Jeans another tough-luck loss.
Jeans was solid for ULM, holding App State (14-18, 6-7) to just three runs, one earned, on four hits with no walks and seven strikeouts while throwing all eight innings, setting a new career high.
"I hate it for him," said head coach Michael Federico. "He's given us some quality starts. The record doesn't show it. Very, very disappointed when you have an effort like that, give up four hits and only one earned run, it's frustrating."
"I felt really great," Jeans said. "The mound was great. (Catcher Logan) Wurm just called a great game."
ULM opened the scoring in the second inning. Andrew Beesley reached on a bunt single to open the inning. Later in the frame, Ryan Humeniuk squeezed a fly ball just inside of the right field foul pole for a 2-run home run and a 2-0 ULM lead.
Jeans cruised through the first four innings, giving up just one hit. Joel McDaniel hit a solo home run in the bottom of the fifth to cut the deficit in half to 2-1.
App State then took advantage of a ULM error in the sixth inning. After Alex Leshock reached on an error, Tyler Leek followed with a double. Luke Drumheller hit a sacrifice fly to right field to tie the game, and Kendall McGowan provided an RBI double to left center to give App State the 3-2 lead.
The Warhawk offense sputtered outside of the early home run. Trent Tingelstad hit a two-out single in the sixth inning, but was stranded on first base. Beesley extended his hitting streak to six games, all of them multi-hit games, with an infield single in the seventh inning. He moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Blake Buckman, but was stranded there.
"We need to be in some close games like this," Federico said. "A lot of times, guys kind of have pressure a little bit when it's a 2-0 game or a 3-1 game, you can't change anything. I felt like we played with a little bit of pressure, even though we had the lead, it still didn't feel like we were comfortable out there."
After giving up a pair of runs in the sixth inning, Jeans returned to the mound in the seventh and eighth innings, facing just six batters to close out the game.
"I loved it," Jeans said. "I loved that (Federico) showed so much confidence in me."
"Trey was around the zone all day, limited his walks," Federico said. "He didn't have a whole lot of three ball counts today. Just outstanding. He gave us a chance. We've just got to be able to play defense behind him, and we've got to find a way to score runs off of good pitching."
ULM was shut down over the last two innings by App State's Kaleb Bowman, who gave up just one walk in picking up his third save of the season. Sprinkle earned his second win, throwing 7 innings with two runs on four hits with a walk and five strikeouts.
"Sprinkle was around the zone," Federico said. "He had one walk. He was just in the strike zone so much. His presentation of his pitches was all down. He got weak contact after weak contact. Basically left one pitch up that Humeniuk hits a home run on. He didn't pitch in traffic the whole day. You have to tip your cap to him. They did a great job. Bowman was dominating there at the end."
Federico said his team must still learn to adapt to the game.
"When games unfold and you start to get into it, you've got to be able to shift gears," Federico said. "It's not just always with power. We've been swinging the bat with some extra base hits and stuff and sometimes you have to do the little things. We gave too many at bats away, which was disappointing."
With poor weather conditions forecasted for the remainder of the weekend, the two teams will attempt to play a doubleheader on Saturday, beginning at 9 a.m. Central. Links to live video, audio and stats are available at ULMWarhawks.com.
