BOONE, N.C.  – Three Mountaineers pounded out home runs on Wednesday as Appalachian State University softball went 1-1 with UNCG in a midweek doubleheader at the Sywassink/Lloyd Family Softball Stadium in Boone. App State topped the Spartans 2-1 in game one, and UNCG bounced back to outlast the Black and Gold 11-9 in game two.

Appalachian State (12-13, 0-3) grabbed their twelfth victory of the season, which surpasses the total number of wins in 2016. The Mountaineers also axed a six-game losing streak to the Spartans (17-13, 0-0 SoCon) with their 2-1 triumph and defeated their ninth non-conference opponent of the season.

App State Trio Ally Walters, Jenny Dodd and Cara Parker all crashed out home runs today with Walters mustering up a career-high two jacks in a single game and registering her first grand slam in a Black and Gold uniform. Also,  Parker raised her all-time home run count to 36, and the Apps recorded a team-high of three homers

Game One: App State 2 , UNCG 1

App State broke onto the board first thanks to a Dodd home run to take the 2-0 lead. Megan Walker set the stage for Dodd after she reached first on a hit by pitch and advanced to second from a Haley Stewart sac. bunt. After Parker had grounded out, Dodd hit her second homer of the season over the right center fence to take the advantage at the end of the third.

After keeping UNCG off the scoreboard for five innings, Spartan Sidney Grkman cut App State's lead in half after smacking a home run over dead center at the top of the sixth.

App had another opportunity to extend their lead at the bottom of the sixth with Mountaineers on first and third, but UNCG clawed their way out of the jam to bring the ballgame to the seventh.

With three outs needed to solidify the win, Kenzie Longanecker answered the call and struck out the necessary batters to edge UNCG 2-1.

Dodd highlighted the offense going 2-for-3 at the plate followed by four other Mountaineers who recorded one hit apiece to down UNCG.

Annaleise Kennedy and Longanecker turned in two solid performances in the circle holding the Spartans to five scoreless innings and striking out six batters to keep the SoCon team out of scoring position.

Game Two: UNCG 11, App State 9

After a back-and-forth battle that saw two grand slams and four lead changes, the Spartans came out on top with an 11-9 victory over Appalachian.

The Mountaineers busted out of the gates with five runs in the first to put UNCG in an early deficit. After App State had loaded the bases, Natalie Orcutt rocketed a single to center field to bring home Parker, who reached on a single. Then in a blink of an eye, Walters bombed out a grand slam to dead center to clear the bases and round up four runs to end the first up by five.

At the top of the third, the Spartans' bats began to get hot with a home run to right center to cut Apps' lead to 5-1 and was followed by a grand slam to even up the score. Later, UNCG would tack on two more to grab their first lead of the game, 7-5.

Not deterred by the two-run deficit, Walters connected again in the bottom of the third slamming a two-run homer over the scoreboard to tie the game at seven apiece.

After both ball clubs had scored one run at the end of the fifth to bring the score to 8-8, Parker ruptured the tie blistering out a home run to right field in the following inning, but the Spartans put up three more at the top of the seventh to snatch the rematch, 11-9.

Walters was sizzling hot at the plate going 2-for-4 with a career high of six RBI and two home runs.

Vanessa Ciocatto highlighted the pitching core striking out five batters in 3.0 innings.

Up Next

The Black and Gold will continue conference play in Decatur, Ga. when they take on the Georgia State Panthers for a three-game series March 25-26 at the Robert E. Heck Softball Complex.