Baseball Aims for Sun Belt Breakthrough vs. LR
Baseball Aims for Sun Belt Breakthrough vs. LR

Appalachian State University baseball looks to ride the momentum of Wednesday's 12-1 win over North Carolina Central into this weekend's three-game Sun Belt Conference series versus red-hot Little Rock. Game times are set for 6 p.m. Friday, 3 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday at Appalachian State's Beaver Field at Jim and Bettie Smith Stadium.

TICKETS
Tickets for this weekend's games cost just $10 for adults, $6 for high school students and $3 for youth (ages 3-12). Tickets for all three games can be purchased online by clicking HERE or at the Smith Stadium gate, beginning one hour prior to first pitch each day. As always, Appalachian State students are admitted free with a valid student ID.

VIDEO
All three games will be streamed live on App State TV, which is offering 20 percent off annual subscriptions this weekend. Click HERE to become at App State TV premium subscriber.

RADIO
All three games can also be heard live on the Appalachian IMG Sports Network. Appalachian State baseball radio broadcasts are carried live on WATA 1450 AM in Boone and worldwide at appstatesports.com.

NOTING THIS WEEKEND'S SERIES
• Appalachian State gets to play a Sun Belt series in the friendly confines of Smith Stadium for the first time in three weeks. The Mountaineers have spent the last two weekends at Texas State and UL Monroe after opening conference play at home versus Georgia Southern on March 11-12.

• The Mountaineers earned their first home win of the season when they hammered N.C. Central on Wednesday.

• Wednesday's rout over NCCU was arguably Appalachian's most complete performance of the season. The Mountaineers pounded out 15 hits while scoring a season-high 12 runs. Four App State pitchers combined to limit the Eagles to an unearned run on seven hits and issued only one walk.

• The first five hitters in Appalachian State's batting order (Tanner Mann-Fix, Matt Vernon, Tyler Stroup, Grayson Atwood and Brian Bauk) combined to go 12-for-20 with 10 RBI and nine runs scored against NCCU.

• While App State is coming off an impressive mid-week win, Little Rock comes into town as the Sun Belt's hottest team, despite its 5-2 loss to Oklahoma on Tuesday.

• Prior to the mid-week defeat at the hands of the Sooners, the Trojans had won six-straight games. The six-consecutive wins included taking the final two games of their Sun Belt series at nationally ranked UL Lafayette and sweeping a three-game conference series from Troy.

• Little Rock features the nation's leading hitter in senior outfielder Ryan Scott, who is brings an other-wordly .500 batting average into this weekend's series. Scott has 47 hits in 94 at-bats this season, including seven doubles, two triples and seven home runs. The all-America candidate has driven in 34 runs and scored 30 in just 24 games.

• April is traditionally when Appalachian State baseball starts to heat up. Since 2009, App State is 84-41 in the month of April (.672). In all other months, the Mountaineers are 135-156-1 (.464).

APPALACHIAN STATE BASEBALL (5-19, 1-8 Sun Belt) vs. Little Rock (12-12, 5-4 Sun Belt)
Friday-Sunday, April 1-3 • Boone, N.C. • Beaver Field at Jim and Bettie Smith Stadium
Date Time
App State Probable
Starting Pitcher
Little Rock Probable
Starting Pitcher
Friday April 1 6 p.m. Fr. LHP Bobby Hampton (1-3, 6.51 ERA) Jr. RHP Matt McDowell (0-0, 5.50 ERA)
Saturday, April 2 3 p.m. Fr. RHP Breydan Gorham (1-3, 5.28 ERA) Jr. RHP Cory Malcom (1-3, 9.30 ERA)
Sunday, April 3 1 p.m. Fr. LHP Colin Schmid (0-6, 9.72 ERA) Fr. RHP Joe Corbett (3-0, 6.12 ERA)
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