By Matt Present. STATESBORO, Ga. — Despite quality relief efforts from Carter Boyd and Bradley Wilson, the Mountaineers’ offense was held in check, falling 5-1 to Georgia Southern in Sunday’s series finale at J.I. Clements Stadium.
After App State (11-12, 3-3) took an early 1-0 lead in the second inning, Georgia Southern (14-9, 3-3) responded with five unanswered runs in the contest, highlighted by a three-run second inning to take the lead.
After Everette Harris started the ballgame on the mound for App State, Boyd came on in relief in the third inning. The redshirt sophomore got a flyout to end the inning and ultimately worked 2.1 innings, allowing just a run, while striking out one.
Wilson then worked the final 3.0 innings and did not allow a walk or a hit and threw 27 of his 40 pitches for strikes.
The Mountaineers lone run came on a bases loaded walk to Tommy Walker, which followed walks to Braxton Church and Graham Smiley, sandwiched around a hit by pitch of Tyler Figueroa.
Tyler Lichtenberger led the offense with two hits, including a triple, raising his team-leading batting average to .403 on the season.
App State will return to Boone for four home games next week, beginning with a Tuesday contest against High Point at 6 p.m. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+.
By Jacob Plecker. BOONE, N.C. — The App State Softball team saw an opposite-field home run by sophomore Macy Hamby in the sixth inning, but a three-run second inning by the Georgia Southern was all the Eagles needed to win the game, 4-1, on March 23.
GSU used solid pitching performances to win both the game and the 3-game weekend series. App State was held hitless until the bottom of the third inning in game 3 and only tallied three hits on the day.
Photo by David Katzenmaier, courtesy of App State Athletics
Hamby’s home run marked App State’s (10-20, 1-5 SBC) fifth home run of the weekend and helped break the Georgia Southern (20-13, 4-2 SBC) shutout bid. Hamby became the fourth different Mountaineer to hit a home run at the newly constructed Sywassink/Lloyd Family Stadium, joining Madison McIntyre, Leah Gore and Makayla McClain, who each hit homers on Saturday.
After seeing the Eagles take a four-run lead in the fourth inning, the Mountaineers turned to Sophie Moshos to keep App State within striking distance by posting 3.1 innings of scoreless relief. The lefty allowed just one hit in her outing while striking out three Eagle batters, moving her within one strikeout of eclipsing 400 career strikeouts at the collegiate level. For the weekend, Moshos posted a 1.50 ERA in 9.1 innings of work and tallied her sixth win of the year on Saturday.
Summer Simpson racked up another hit against the Eagles, marking her fourth knock of the three-game set. Her two-out single in the third inning helped extend her hitting streak to five straight games. Julia Girk stroked the Mountaineers’ third hit of the ballgame in the fifth inning, which was her second hit of the series.
How it Happened
On the final day of the three-game set between the Eagles and Mountaineers, Sejal Neas took the ball first and posted a scoreless first inning by working around a pair of singles. App State went quietly in its half of the first and Georgia Southern scored three runs in the top of the second to take a three-run lead. All three of the Eagles’ runs came with two outs.
Photo by TJ Hoolehan, courtesy of App State Athletics
Alana Barnard, who recorded the win on Sunday, sat down the Mountaineers in order in the bottom of the second, but Neas bounced back in the top of the third to keep the Eagles off the board. The senior worked around a lead-off double to do so.
App State tallied its first hit of the game in the third inning thanks to a sharply hit single by Simpson. The Eagles retired the first two hitters of the inning before Simpson shot one up the middle. Nothing came of the hit as Georgia Southern retired the next hitter to keep its three-run advantage.
The Eagles struck again in the top of the fourth inning to take a four-run lead. The inning started with a single and after two outs recorded by Bel Varadi, who relieved Neas at the beginning of the inning, Georgia Southern scored its fourth and final run to make it 4-0 after three and a half frames.
Needing to answer, the Mountaineers saw a walk to Grace Barrett to give them a one-out baserunner, but a fielder’s choice and a strikeout ended the threat with the Eagles still holding a four-run lead.
Photo by TJ Hoolehan, courtesy of App State Athletics
Moshos, who came on to pitch in the fourth inning, threw up a zero in the fifth inning and App State generated its first scoring chance of the game to lead off the bottom half. Girk reached base on an infield hit and McIntyre hustled through the bag to beat out a grounder to second, which put two on for Hannah Forbes with no one out. But the Eagle defense clamped down and made two straight nice plays to keep App State off the scoreboard.
A 1-2-3 sixth inning by Moshos helped bring the Mountaineer bats back to the plate immediately, and Hamby paid off the shutdown inning with a solo homer into the Eagle bullpen to break the shutout. It was her second home run of the year and first since Feb. 16. The Eagles made a pitching change after the homer and sat down three in a row to close the inning.
The Mountaineer defense posted another perfect inning in the top of the seventh, which kept their deficit to three as play entered the final half-inning. App State saw a two-out walk drawn by Forbes, but the Eagle defense held serve and won the game 4-1.
By Matt Present. STATESBORO, Ga. — With the Mountaineers down by a run and down to their final out in the top of the ninth inning, Graham Smiley blasted a go-ahead grand slam, but Georgia Southern answered with a walk-off single in the bottom half of the inning as App State fell to the Eagles 14-13 on March 22, at J.I. Clements Stadium.
In a contest that featured seven lead changes, App State (11-11, 3-2) and Georgia Southern (13-9, 2-3) combined for 27 runs on 31 hits, including nine home runs on the afternoon. Smiley finished the game with two home runs and five RBIs, while Kameron Miller belted a grand-slam of his own, finishing with a career-high four hits, two home runs and six RBIs.
App State trailed 12-9 when the ninth inning began. Miller led off the inning with a single and Braxton Church reached on a fielder’s choice. With two outs and App State down to its final strike, Tanner McCammon beat out an infield single, extending the contest for Smiley, who deposited a 1-0 pitch over the wall in dead center field to put App State in the lead, 13-12.
The Eagles worked a walk and a hit by pitch to begin the home half of the inning, and sacrificed the pair into scoring position, where Nico Senese lined a game-winning single to right-center field, just over the leaping Joseph Zamora at second base.
App State led the contest 3-1 early, scoring a pair of runs in the second inning, followed by a solo homer from Miller in the fourth. The Eagles answered with a three-run bottom of the fourth inning to take a 4-3 advantage.
The Mountaineers delivered a massive counterpunch in the fifth. Smiley led off the inning with his first homer of the ballgame to center field. Charlie Evans, Dillon Moquin and Zamora followed with three straight singles, setting the table for Miller, who drilled a 1-1 fastball over the left field wall to give App State an 8-4 lead.
The Eagles continued the back-and-forth action, homering twice in a four-run bottom half of the frame to square the contest at 8-8.
The Eagles put together another multi-run frame in the sixth, hitting another home run as part of a three-run frame.
Tyler Lichtenberger, Zamora and McCammon all finished with two hits in the contest and all nine starters registered at least one hit for the Mountaineers, after the team was held to just four hits on Friday night.
App State will try to salvage the series finale on Sunday at 1 p.m.
By Jacob Plecker. BOONE, N.C. – Trailing by two runs entering the fifth inning, the App State Softball team needed a spark to close the game. They found that in a huge way with 10 runs in the final two innings, including four home runs, helping App State post a run-rule victory over the Georgia Southern Eagles 10-2 on March 22.
The Mountaineers didn’t record a hit until the fourth inning of play but tallied seven hits across the last two innings.
Photo by Jon Pearl, courtesy of App State Athletics
Madison McIntyre helped spark a six-run fifth inning with a solo home run over the left-field wall, which was the Mountaineers’ (10-19, 1-4 SBC) first long ball at their new stadium. McIntyre struck again in the sixth inning for a two-run homer, marking her first career multi-homer game at the collegiate level. The freshman first-baseman tallied three RBI on the day and has five runs driven in heading into the series finale on Sunday.
App State went ahead for good in the fifth inning after Leah Gore belted a high-arching grand slam over the left-field wall after seeing the Eagles (19-13, 3-2 SBC) make a pitching change. Gore’s go-ahead grand slam was App State’s second of the season. Makayla McClain provided the last of the fireworks as she hit a walk-off two-run home run into right-center field, her fourth of the year, helping send the Mountaineer faithful home happy.
Left-handed pitcher Sophie Moshos dazzled in the circle for the Mountaineers in game 2, going the distance while allowing just two runs. Both runs came with two outs in the third inning. Moshos struck out three hitters, putting her at 396 for her career, and posted her sixth win of the season.
Photo by Jon Pearl, courtesy of App State Athletics
How it Happened
The Mountaineer defense started the contest strong on Saturday, posting a 1-2-3 top of the first inning. Moshos tallied the first strikeout of her day to close the frame. Macy Hamby worked a one-out walk in the bottom of the first and stole second, but App State couldn’t get her home, leaving the game scoreless after a full inning.
Another perfect inning by Moshos sent the Mountaineer bats right back into the dugout, and Marti Henkel drew the Mountaineers’ second walk of the game. Georgia Southern didn’t let Henkel get past first base, however, and kept the score at 0-0 entering the third.
Photo by Ella Graham, courtesy of App State Athletics
The Eagles saw their first baserunner reach to lead off the third inning, a walk to Madi Gillespie. McIntyre helped record the first out of the inning by making a diving play in foul territory on a sacrifice bunt attempt before a fielder’s choice quickly tallied the second out. But Georgia Southern struck first with back-to-back doubles to plate two runs with two outs. It would be the last time the Eagles scored in the game.
Trailing for the first time in the game, the Mountaineer bats went quietly in the bottom of the third, but Moshos didn’t let that stop her as she stranded the bases loaded to keep App State’s deficit to just two after three and a half innings. App State recorded its first hit in the bottom of the fourth, a two-out double by Henkel, but she was tagged out after sliding past the bag.
Photo by Jon Pearl, courtesy of App State Athletics
Moshos continued to keep the Eagles in check in the fifth inning by working around a walk to throw up another zero. Then, the App State bats woke up and took the lead in the bottom of the fifth.
App State’s six-run inning began with an out, but McIntyre’s first home run of the game trimmed the deficit in half as she shot the first home run at the newly constructed Sywassink/Lloyd Family stadium over the right-center field wall. With one out, Taylor Chumbley reached base on an error and Summer Simpson shot a single into left field to put runners on the corners for McClain.
PHILADELPHIA — A banner season for App State Wrestling ended Friday on Day 2 of the NCAA Championships.
Three-time NCAA qualifier Will Miller won an NCAA match for the second straight year, using a second-period pin in his 2025 opener at the Wells Fargo Center to reach the Round of 16, but consecutive losses eliminated him from competition. A pair of first-time NCAA qualifiers, junior Carson Floyd (No. 33 seed) and true freshman Stephan Monchery (No. 32 seed), joined Miller in Philadelphia and went 0-2 from their pigtail paths.
The SoCon Wrestler of the Year as a senior and the No. 13 seed in Philly, Miller finished the 2024-25 season with a 22-4 record and 84 career victories. Head coach JohnMark Bentley’s program won three SoCon regular season titles and three SoCon tournament titles during Miller’s four seasons.
That included a share of a regular season team title and a dramatic SoCon tournament team title in 2025, when the Mountaineers started freshmen at five of 10 weights after losing two top-16 NCAA finishers to P4 programs via the transfer portal and having two other SoCon champions with NCAA experience suffer season-ending injuries in the first dual.
Miller’s second-period win by fall Thursday against Southern Scuffle champion Gunner Filipowicz, the No. 20 seed from Army, and an 11-1 loss to No. 4 seed Terrell Barraclough, who transferred to Utah Valley after spending four seasons at Penn State, meant that he was one of 24 wrestlers left in the 165-pound bracket.
On Friday, his match against No. 30 seed Aiden Riggins was scoreless until Riggins executed a second-period reversal following a strong ride from Miller. Riggins didn’t allow an escape, so Miller opted to start the third period from a neutral position rather than from bottom with a 2-0 deficit, and Riggins’ third-period takedown for a 5-0 lead provided the key separation in a 9-1 major decision.
Miller arrived in Philadelphia with a 21-2 record this season but no pins. He picked a fine time to change that, completing a takedown of Filipowicz with six seconds left in the second period for a 3-1 lead and beating the clock by finishing off a pin one second before the period ended.
It was App State’s first win by fall at the NCAA Championships since Codi Russell produced one in 2019.
Barraclough improved to 30-2 this season by turning competitive exchanges into takedowns late in the first and second periods against Miller. Barraclough was 12-2 last season as Penn State’s backup to national runner-up Mitchell Mesenbrink.
Floyd wrapped up his junior season with a 28-10 record, raising his total to 66 career victories, while Monchery went 19-11 this season and qualified for the NCAAs as the SoCon champion despite starting the year with a 6-6 record.
Floyd trailed 11-3 on Thursday before he recorded a takedown and two near fall points in the final 10 seconds of a 12-8 loss against Army’s Wolfgang Frable (No. 32 seed) in their pigtail opener. Floyd put Frable on his back after attempting to cut and then quickly reengage with his opponent, but he ran out of time to do more damage.
Floyd cut his second-period deficit against West Virginia’s Ian Bush (No. 30 seed) to 4-3 in the next round with a second-period takedown and trailed by one again following a third-period escape, but Floyd was unable to secure a go-ahead takedown late in Bush’s 5-4 decision.
Monchery opened the event with a 9-0 loss to Purdue’s Hayden Filipovich and went through a scoreless first period in his next match against Wyoming’s Sam Mitchell, who rode out the second period. An escape, takedown and rideout for Mitchell in the third period resulted in a 5-0 decision.
The 2024-25 season was presented by Hungry Howie’s and Penn Station.
App State Wrestlers @ NCAA Championships
165: #13 Will Miller (22-4)
W, Fall (4:59) vs. #20 Gunner Filipowicz, Army
L, MD (11-1) vs. #4 Terrell Barraclough, Utah Valley
By Jacob Plecker. BOONE, N.C. — In what was the team’s first home game of the season and first contest at its new facility, App State Softball got out to an early lead after a third-inning double, but couldn’t make it stand up as the Georgia Southern Eagles scored five times in the final three innings to claim a 5-3 win at Sywassink/Lloyd Family Stadium on Friday. The Mountaineers scored two runs in the final inning of play, but important seventh-inning insurance runs provided the Eagles the right amount of cushion to secure the win.
App State (9-19, 0-4 SBC) tallied the first hit and the first RBI at its new stadium in the third inning. The first hit came courtesy of a two-out double by Summer Simpson, which helped spark a string of three straight hits to plate the first run. Makayla McClain drove home Simpson with a double to left-center field immediately following Simpson’s double. App State tallied five hits against the Eagles (19-12, 3-1 SBC), with four of them being doubles.
Photo by Jon Pearl, courtesy of App State Athletics
Sejal Neas started the Mountaineers’ home opener in the circle and posted a solid outing, allowing just one earned run in 4.1 innings. She carried a no-hit bid into the fifth inning. The senior held the Eagles in check through the first four innings despite seeing some traffic on the bases as she stranded four runners.
The Mountaineers were led offensively by Macy Hamby who tallied two hits in three at-bats. Macy Hamby tallied one of four Mountaineer doubles in the game with a shot off the right-field wall in the sixth inning. Madison McIntyre also posted a double in Friday’s game, which drove home App State’s second and third runs in the seventh inning.
Photo by Ella Graham, courtesy of App State Athletics
How it Happened
Taking the field for the first time at its new home, Neas and the Mountaineer defense worked a scoreless top of the first, working around a lead-off walk and a stolen base to do so. Neas picked up her first strikeout for the first out of the inning, which drew an ovation from the Mountaineer crowd.
App State went quietly in its first at-bat, but Neas kept the score at zeroes after stranding two runners in the bottom of the second with a groundout. Both teams traded 1-2-3 frames in the next inning, but the Mountaineers struck for the game’s first run in the bottom of the third.
Photo by CJ Hellner, courtesy of App State Athletics
With both teams hitless entering the inning, Georgia Southern retired the first two Mountaineers via strikeout, but Simpson ended the no-hit threat by blasting a line drive to the right-field wall for a double. It was the first hit at the new stadium. Three pitches later, McClain laced a double of her own to the left-field wall to score Simpson and make it 1-0.
Not done yet, Hamby reached base on an infield hit down the third-base line and then stole second base to put two runners in scoring position with two outs. But the Eagles remained calm and forced a groundout to end the inning.
Neas and her defense responded to the Mountaineers’ score by posting the fourth consecutive scoreless inning of her start. App State saw a walk by Leah Gore to lead off the fourth inning, but a double play ended the threat with the Mountaineers still leading by one as action moved to the fifth.
Georgia Southern used two hits to even the score at one in the top of the fifth, breaking up Neas’ no-hit bid with a lead-off double. The Eagles scored thanks to a single to right by Emma Davis, which forced the Mountaineers to turn to their bullpen. Ava Beamesderfer came on and stranded the bases loaded to keep the score tied.
Photo by CJ Hellner, courtesy of App State Athletics
The Mountaineers went down quietly in the fifth inning and the Eagles scored two more times to take the lead in the sixth. App State retired the first two hitters in the inning, but Georgia Southern saw a two-out runner reach on a dropped third strike. After an infield hit to put two on, the Eagles’ lead-off hitter rung a double into the gap to score both runners, which gave them the lead.
Needing to answer quickly, Hamby reached second base via a double and advanced to third on a passed ball. This forced a pitching change, which proved to be the right move as Georgia Southern kept App State off the board. The Eagles used this momentum and scored twice more in the final inning to get to their final total of five runs.
App State didn’t go quietly in its final at-bat as both Marti Henkel and Julia Girk reached base to lead off the inning. Wasting no time, McIntyre smoked an opposite-field double into the outfield to plate two runs, closing the gap back to two runs. This forced a pitching change by the Eagles, and they turned back to their starter, Maddie Johnson, who closed out the game to secure the victory.
By Bret Stelow. PHILADELPHIA — App State Wrestling’s Will Miller advanced to Day 2 of the NCAA Championships with a 1-1 opening day that began with his first pin of the season.
The second-period win by fall Thursday afternoon against Southern Scuffle champion Gunner Filipowicz, the No. 20 seed from Army, and an 11-1 loss to No. 4 seed Terrell Barraclough, who transferred to Utah Valley after spending four seasons at Penn State, mean that Miller is one of 24 wrestlers left in the 165-pound bracket.
The 13th-seeded Miller will face No. 30 seed Aiden Riggins from Iowa State on Friday, with the winner earning a spot in the final 16 of that weight class. Consolation bracket wrestlers can clinch a spot in the final 12 with two wins Friday and All-America recognition as a top-eight finisher with three straight victories.
The quarterfinals at 165 include seven of the top eight seeds, with only a 12-5 “upset” disrupting that. Of the 80 quarterfinalists across 10 weights, only six have a higher seed than 13th.
Miller, the SoCon Wrestler of the Year, arrived in Philadelphia with a 21-2 record this season but no pins. He picked a fine time to change that, completing a takedown of Filipowicz with six seconds left in the second period for a 3-1 lead and beating the clock by finishing off a pin one second before the period ended.
It was App State’s first win by fall at the NCAA Championships since Codi Russell produced one in 2019.
Barraclough improved to 30-2 this season by turning competitive exchanges into takedowns late in the first and second periods against Miller. Barraclough was 12-2 last season as Penn State’s backup to national runner-up Mitchell Mesenbrink.
A pair of first-time NCAA qualifiers from App State, junior Carson Floyd (No. 33 seed at 197 pounds) and true freshman Stephan Monchery (No. 32 seed at heavyweight) both went 0-2 from their pigtail paths.
Floyd wrapped up his junior season with a 28-10 record, raising his total to 66 career victories, while Monchery went 19-11 this season and qualified for the NCAAs as the SoCon champion despite starting the year with a 6-6 record.
Floyd trailed 11-3 on Thursday before he recorded a takedown and two near fall points in the final 10 seconds of a 12-8 loss against Army’s Wolfgang Frable (No. 32 seed) in their pigtail opener. Floyd put Frable on his back after attempting to cut and then quickly re-engage with his opponent, but he ran out of time to do more damage.
Floyd cut his second-period deficit against West Virginia’s Ian Bush (No. 30 seed) to 4-3 in the next round with a second-period takedown and trailed by one again following a third-period escape, but Floyd was unable to secure a go-ahead takedown late in Bush’s 5-4 decision.
Monchery opened the event with a 9-0 loss to Purdue’s Hayden Filipovich and went through a scoreless first period in his next match against Wyoming’s Sam Mitchell, who rode out the second period. An escape, takedown and rideout for Mitchell in the third period resulted in a 5-0 decision.
The 2024-25 season is presented by Hungry Howie’s and Penn Station.
APP STATE Results at NCAA Nationals
165: #13 Will Miller (22-3)
W, Fall (4:59) vs. #20 Gunner Filipowicz, Army
L, MD (11-1) vs. #4 Terrell Barraclough, Utah Valley
By David Rogers. TAYLORSVILLE, N.C. — Going 4-for-5 with a home run and three singles — and adding a pair of stolen bases — Watauga senior shortstop Maddox Greene’s breakout day for the 2025 season turned out to be not quite enough. In the top of the 10th inning, Alexander Central’s designated hitter Wyatt Smith lofted a long fly ball to centerfield, scoring junior first baseman Maddix Reese for a walk-off sacrifice fly to win, 5-4.
In the top of the 7th inning, Greene’s solo home run tied the game at 4-4 and both teams wriggled out of defensive jams for the next two frames to send the game into extra innings.
Greene got the scoring started in the top of the 3rd inning with a 2-out single, then scored when first baseman JT Cook doubled to center. Then Pioneer right fielder Dillon Zaragoza followed with a double to left, scoring Cook, allowing Watauga to take an early, 2-0 lead. The Cougars rallied for three runs in the bottom of the 3rd to take a one-run advantage, but in the top of the 4th, the Pioneers’ speedy second baseman Evan Burroughs stole third base and scored on a fielding error by the Cougars’ third baseman, freshman Gunnar Johnson, knotting the score at 3-3.
Alexander Central scored again in the bottom half of the 4th to take the lead, 4-3, and that is where things were until Greene’s HR to lead off the 7th inning and tie things up at 4-4. The Cougars threatened in the bottom of the sixth when Johnson tagged up at third base on a fly ball to right by Smith, but Zaragoza rifled the ball home to catcher Brett Vannoy, in time to tag Johnson out at the plate.
Watauga (3-7 overall, 0-2 in Northwestern Conference) returns home on March 25 to face Hibriten (8-2, 2-0, then travels to Morganton to take on Freedom (6-5, 0-2) on March 28.
By Matt Present. CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Despite falling behind by six runs in the bottom of the first inning, App State chipped away at the deficit and ultimately put the go-ahead run on base in the ninth, before falling 7-6 to Charlotte at Hayes Stadium on Tuesday.
Summoned into action in the first inning, the App State (11-9) bullpen was sensational in the ballgame, with five relievers combining to work 7.2 innings, giving up just one run, while striking out 11.
Photo by Jon Pearl, courtesy of App State Athletics
Trailing 7-1 in the sixth inning, the Mountaineers scored the final five runs of the contest. Dillon Moquin led off the sixth with a single up the middle, and Joseph Zamora and Kameron Miller each walked to load the bases. After a sacrifice fly from Braxton Church, Charlie Evans reached on a fielding error to push a run across, and Tanner McCammon singled through the middle to push across another run and cut the deficit to 7-4.
After Carter Boyd ended the home sixth by picking up a strikeout to stand the bases loaded, the App State offense went right back to work. Tyler Lichtenberger and Moquin opened the seventh inning with back-to-back doubles, trimming the deficit to two. Later in the inning, Tyler Figueroa lifted a sac fly to center field to make it a 7-6 game.
Still down by a run in the top of the ninth, App State put runners at the corners with one out, following a walk and a single, but a double play put an end to the App State comeback effort.
Photo by Jon Pearl, courtesy of App State Athletics
Cody Little highlighted the effort from the App State bullpen, collecting a career-high five strikeouts across three innings of work. Jake Beaty fanned three more over 1.2 innings of work, while Boyd tossed two scoreless innings and picked up a pair of strikeouts.
Charlotte (10-9) opened the game with a bunt single followed by a two-run home run two batters later. The 49ers ultimately sent 12 men to the plate in the frame, scoring six runs on six hits, and took advantage of three walks in the frame.
Moquin and Lichtenberger led the offensive effort for the Mountaineers, extending their on base streaks to 16 and 19 games respectively.
The Mountaineers return to conference play this weekend, as the team heads to Statesboro, Ga. for a three-game series against Georgia Southern. All three games will be broadcast on ESPN+
By Jacob Plecker. SAN MARCOS, Texas. — Trailing by four after three outs of play and then falling behind five runs after the second inning, the App State Softball team used a great outing in relief by Sejal Neas to help its comeback effort, but the strong pitching and defense of the Texas State Bobcats sunk the Mountaineers in the series finale, the Bobcats winning, 6-4, on March 16.
App State (9-18, 0-3 SBC) saw a phenomenal outing by Neas over the final six innings of play as the senior kept Texas State (18-6, 3-0 SBC) off the scoreboard for each of the final four innings. Neas gave up zero earned runs in her 5.1 innings of work and helped settle things down for App State after the Bobcats scored four times in the first inning. This included leaving the bases loaded in the bottom of the sixth inning with the Mountaineers trailing by two.
Photo by Jon Pearl, courtesy of App State Athletics
The Mountaineers outhit the Bobcats in game 3, seeing a 7-6 advantage. Makayla McClain and Grace Barrett both tallied a multi-hit game and the top four in the Mountaineer order posted six of the seven hits. Leah Gore smacked her team-leading fifth homer of the season out of right field and Summer Simpson helped spark a rally that resulted in a two-run third inning. Simpson gave App State good production out of the nine-hole in San Marcos as she recorded two hits and scored two runs.
It was a close series between the Mountaineers and Bobcats to open Sun Belt play, but the big inning bit the Mountaineers on both Friday and Sunday. App State surrendered a four-run first frame in both the series opener and the series finale. Take those innings away, and the two teams were separated by just three runs. In both games that App State allowed a four-run first, Texas State led wire-to-wire.
How it Happened
The Mountaineers went quietly in the top of the first inning as Texas State sat down the first three hitters it faced. The Bobcats saw walks to three of their first four hitters to quickly load the bases with one out in the bottom of the first. Sophie Moshos, the Mountaineers starting pitcher, recorded the second out of the inning, but back-to-back singles helped plate four first-innings runs. Neas came on to relieve Moshos and ended the inning, but the Bobcats led 4-0 after one.
Instantly responding, App State trimmed its deficit down to three runs with nobody out in the second as Gore shot a homer the opposite way for her fifth long ball of the year. Texas State didn’t let the Mountaineers get any closer in the second and maintained its three-run lead.
Photo by Jon Pearl, courtesy of App State Athletics
Texas State responded by scoring twice more in the bottom of the second inning to shoot its lead back to five. The frame started with a single by the lead-off hitter and then a crucial error on a sacrifice bunt attempt put two runners on for the Bobcats’ third hitter in their lineup. This resulted in a sac fly to make the score 5-1. After a walk to Aiyana Coleman, Neas struck out the next hitter for the second out, but a steal of second and throw through the pitcher plated the Bobcats’ sixth run. That was the last time Texas State scored in the game.
As part of this back-and-forth game, the Mountaineers bounced back and scored twice in the third inning to chip away at their deficit. Texas State retired the first hitter of the inning and then four straight hits by Simpson, McClain, Macy Hamby and Barrett plated two runs to make the score 6-3. Texas State made a pitching change after Barrett’s RBI hit and turned to Sun Belt Preseason Pitcher of the Year, Madison Azua, who retired the side and left two stranded.
Neas left a two-out double stranded in the third inning to post a scoreless frame and then posted her second consecutive scoreless frame in the fourth by striking out a batter. App State used the momentum from Neas’ work and scored again in the fifth inning to make it a two-run game.
McClain’s second hit of the day started the inning before Barrett whacked a single into right-center field to put runners on the corners with one out. The Bobcats retired the next hitters, but the Mountaineers executed a double steal as Barrett took off for second and made it safely which sent McClain home. A popout closed the inning, but it was just a two-run ballgame after five.
A quick inning from both defenses helped move action to the bottom of the sixth inning, which saw Texas State load the bases with two outs. Needing to keep the score where it was, Neas got to a two-strike count and saw a soft line drive snagged at third base by the jumping Olivia Cook, which kept the score at 6-4 into the final inning.
App State turned to Simpson to start the comeback effort, and she nearly opened the inning with a key knock, but a diving play in right field by Bailee Slack recorded the first out. Azua retired the next two hitters in order and sealed her third win of the weekend with a strikeout.
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The Mountaineers will open their home schedule and the newly constructed Sywassink/Lloyd Family Stadium next weekend by playing host to the Georgia Southern Eagles. The Mountaineers will celebrate their 25th season of softball in the High Country all weekend long while also celebrating their alumni. The series will open on Friday with first pitch slated for noon. All three contests can be streamed on ESPN+. Admission to all home games is free.
