College Baseball
Appalachian State 15, Rider University 4
BOONE, NC--The young Broncs come home from North Carolina a bit wiser after losing a four-game series with Appalachian State, falling 15-4 Sunday afternoon.
"We have a young team and we have a lot of work to do," said Rider head coach Barry Davis. "You are not as good as you think you are. They exposed us in some areas we may have felt we were good at. This reinforces some things we talk to the team about. Sometimes they don't believe what they hear from us until they start seeing it."
App. State (9-2) scored nine runs in the third inning on six hits, two walks and two hit batters to take a 10-1 lead. "They are playing really well and can play at a high level," Davis said of the Mountaineers. "They have some quality wins. They had to play to beat us."
Rider (3-5) freshman Justin Thomas (Richboro, PA/Council Rock South) hit a two-run single in the sixth inning to cut the lead to 12-3. Thomas had two of Rider's five hits. "He looked good," Davis said of his rookie designated hitter. "He swung the bat pretty good today. Despite having just five hits our at bats today were pretty good. We only stuck out three times."
Junior Ian Lindsay (Oaklyn/Haddon Twp.) hit an RBI double in the ninth inning for the final score.
Rider tied the score at 1-1 in the third inning when freshman Mike Parsons (Liverpool, NY) singled, was sacrificed to second by graduate student Ryan Murphy (Yardville, N.J./Steinert) and scored on an RBI single by freshman Eric Strano (Robbinsville).
"We see signs of being real good but we also do a lot of things that good teams don't do," Davis said. "To be a good team you have to be more sound, fundamentally."
The Mountaineers took a 1-0 lead when the first batter freshman pitcher Zach Mawson (Magnolia, DE/Caesar Rodney) faced hit a home run.
Making his first collegiate start, Mawson (0-1) pitched into the third inning. "I thought he pitched fine," Davis said. "We dropped a pop up and that opened the door for a big inning. But I thought he threw fine, we just didn't catch the ball."
Rider committed four errors in the game. "We just didn't play good defense all day," Davis said. "We didn't do anything defensively. We booted a couple of double-play balls, didn't block the ball and the runner scores. Defensively we were very below average today. We didn't make routine plays that would have kept us in the game."
Rider plays its first game north of the Mason-Dixon line Tuesday when the Broncs visit Lafayette in Easton, PA. "The wind chill today was around 20 degrees," Davis said, "so playing in 50 degrees in Easton will be a piece of cake."
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