Cullowhee, N.C. – Freshman
Corey Bright recorded seven of Western Carolina's 11 strikeouts on Wednesday evening, but the Catamount offense was stymied by six Mountaineer pitchers as Appalachian State claimed a midweek nonconference victory, 2-0, at Childress Field / Hennon Stadium.
Western Carolina managed to put its lead-off hitter aboard five times on Wednesday, but were never able to light the scoreboard, stranding eight runners on base in the loss. WCU left runners at first and second base in both the second and third innings, and had a runner stranded at third in both the sixth and ninth innings.
Junior
Justice Bigbie doubled down the first base line as a part of a 1-for-4 performance as WCU's six hits were scattered between six different players. Classmate
Immanuel Wilder reached twice with a single and a walk while senior
Kitt Capell was 1-for-2 with a fifth-inning walk. Also collecting hits for the Catamounts were redshirt senior
Andrew Bullock, junior
Will Prater, and sophomore
Colin Bertsch.
Bright (0-1) suffered the loss despite allowing just one run on five hits with seven strikeouts. The Barbourville, Ky., native hit one batter which developed into the one run but did not allow a walk over his career-long six-inning appearance. Sophomore
Davis Tyndall struck out three over two innings, allowing a run on a two hits while freshman
Nick Hyde fanned one in his inning of work.
Cullowhee native Cole Hooper tossed two shutout innings in the start for App State, scattering three hits with three strikeouts before giving way to Noah Hall (1-0), who was credited with the win. Hall worked around one hit and a walk with a strikeout in two scoreless innings as the second of the six pitchers used by App State.
Bailey Welch and Luke Allison both singled twice in 2-for-4 outings for the Mountaineers with Phillip Cole and Luke Drumheller both delivering run-scoring singles as App outhit WCU, 8-6.
Western Carolina (7-5) returns to action this Friday with a doubleheader at USC Upstate's Harley Park in Spartanburg, S.C. The Catamounts face Big Ten foe, Northwestern (4-6) at Noon before squaring off against the USC Upstate Spartans (10-3) at approximately 4:30 pm in game two of the doubleheader.
