HUNTINGTON, W. Va. — Bounce-back perseverance from App State Baseball produced an extra-inning victory Sunday at Marshall and clinched another road series win for the weekend.
App State escaped a jam after Marshall had tied the series finale in the bottom of the ninth inning, then scored four times in the top of the 10th inning to regain the lead for good in an 8-5 victory.
The Mountaineers (19-16, 9-6) earned a Sun Belt Conference road series win for the second straight weekend, taking two of three games in Huntington after doing the same at ULM, and have won the series in four of their five Sun Belt weekends to date. App State currently sits fourth in the 14-team league, one game out of a second-place tie and two games behind first place.
After Marshall (18-18, 6-9) scored an unearned run to tie the game against
Liam Best in the ninth, an intentional walk loaded the bases with one away. First baseman
Juan Correa fielded a hard-hit grounder at the edge of the turf and threw home from one knee to erase the lead runner before Best forced extra innings on a swinging strikeout.
Singles from
Tyler Lichtenberger and
Tyler Figueroa leading off the 10th preceded an RBI double into the right-field corner by
Jonathan Xuereb and a run-scoring bunt single by
Charlie Evans. After an error on
Xavier Lopez's sac bunt loaded the bases with nobody out,
Joseph Zamora and
Kameron Miller had back-to-back sac flies.
A homer for Marshall leading off the bottom of the 10th cut the deficit to three, and two runners were aboard with one away when pitcher
Conner Barozzino replaced Best. With the tying run at the plate, Barozzino forced a flyout to left and ended the game on a swinging strikeout.
App State trailed 3-1 before tying the game on Zamora's two-run sac fly to deep right-center in the seventh — the speedy Evans scored all the way from second to follow Figueroa home. The Mountaineers then claimed a 4-3 lead in the top of the ninth as Xuereb scored on Miller's two-out, pop-up infield single that was lost in the sun near second base.
Zamora finished 1-for-2 with two walks and three RBIs, while Xuereb went 3-for-5 with two RBIs and two runs scored. Figueroa scored three times during a 2-for-4 day.
App State starting pitcher
Everette Harris allowed no hits and one run in 2.1 innings before giving way to
Bradley Wilson, who pitched the next 5.2 innings and allowed just two runs (on a two-run homer in the fourth) on two hits to get the Mountaineers to the dramatic ninth.
A highlight-reel catch from
Dillon Moquin in right began the bottom of the ninth, but a single was followed by a throwing error to second to put two on and an RBI single that included a throwing error to leave two runners in scoring position.
Marshall, which had followed a Friday loss with a Saturday victory, was in position to seize the series, but some late heroics from the Mountaineers kept their strong stretch of weekend play going.
The 2025 App State Baseball season is presented by Chick-fil-A. The Mountaineers are back in action Tuesday at Duke.
