After starting 35 games as a sophomore last season, the first two games of his junior campaign must have been frustrating for junior Drew Martin, who sat the bench for the majority of the doubleheader Saturday.
On Sunday, the third-baseman was finally given the starting nod — he made good use of it.
Martin drove in three runs, had a stolen base and recorded a career high four hits against the Mountaineers. Martin said it felt good to get his bat going, but he is more concerned with the result the team got as a whole.
“It feels good, but it feels better that we got the win though,” Martin said. “We really needed this win. It was a big one. We had the mentality today that we not only needed to come out and beat them, but we needed to beat them bad. That’s what we did, and we felt good about that.”
The Wolfpack went scoreless in the first three innings of the game and entered the bottom of the fourth trailing 3-0. State stormed back, scoring four runs in the fourth and five runs in the fifth inning en route to a 14-4 victory over Appalachian State.
The win secured the Pack’s first series victory of the season. State split the double-header with Appalachian State on Saturday, winning the season opener 8-1 and dropping the second game 7-5. Coach Elliott Avent said winning series is a very important goal for his team.
“You have to win series,” Avent said. “That’s what this thing is all about. If you can win every series, you’ve got a pretty good shot at hosting a regional. After yesterday’s very disappointing second game, this was a great way to bounce back.”
In addition to Martin, junior designated hitter Jeremy Synan and junior right fielder Domonique Rodgers led the Pack offensively. Synan recorded three RBI and one run on two hits while Rodgers left the game early after a collision with center-fielder Marcus Jones on a pop-fly. Rodgers tallied two RBI, two runs and one hit in just two at-bats.
Joey Cutler, who gave up no runs in 2.1 innings earned the win and freshman Jake Buchanan, who struck out five hitters in three innings, earned the save on Sunday. Avent, although happy that his team bounced back, wasn’t satisfied with his team’s performance.
“I just thought that we looked a little tentative at times,” Avent said. “I didn’t think we had quality at-bats. We had too many punch outs. I thought we were a little bit tentative on defense at times. If we would have played as well as we’ve been practicing, I think we would have swept, but I just don’t think we played very well.”
Ryan Pond, who had one homerun and .364 batting average over the weekend, said it was important winning the third game against the Mountaineers.
“They are a smaller school, but they definitely have a good team,” Pond said. “We wanted a sweep, but we didn’t do that. To come back today and respond and win the series is huge. Also, to beat an in-state school is always good.”
