David Rubinstein and the sixth-seeded Mountaineers open SoCon Tournament play on Wednesday versus No. 3 Furman (photo courtesy of SoCon Photos)

Apps Eyeing First SoCon Baseball Title Since 1984
by Tommy Bowman (Winston-Salem Journal)

May 20, 2008 - Appalachian State will head into this week's Southern Conference baseball tournament with high hopes similar to those it had at the start of the season.

The Mountaineers, who avoided today's play-in round with a late-season surge, will open double-elimination play against Furman at 1 p.m. Wednesday at Riley Park in Charleston, S.C.

"Over the last six weeks of the regular season, you can certainly make an argument that we've played as well, if not better than, anybody in the conference," said Coach Chris Pollard, whose program turned a corner last season with 33 wins -- the most since 1986.

This year's team is 31-25 and finished 14-13 in an extremely balanced SoCon but had to overcome a 1-9 mark in league play to gain one of the top six spots for the tournament. The Mountaineers won 10 of 11 games heading into their final regular-season series, stumbled against Wofford and then finally locked up the No. 6 spot.

Pollard said that his team has a definite shot to win the tournament, based on its strong performance down the stretch of the regular season.

"Our approach is the same that we've tried to do over the last few weeks," Pollard said. "You've got to get good starting pitching, you've got to make routine plays, and you have to be timely with your hitting and score runs when you get a chance. We've been very good at being opportunistic over this stretch run."

Pollard's team began to roll a little more than a month ago. The Mountaineers are 13-4 in SoCon play since April 12 and went a combined 7-2 against regular-season winner Elon, No. 3 seed Furman and No. 4 Georgia Southern.

"We were at Georgia Southern and had dropped the first game of the series in a very tough atmosphere," Pollard said of this season's turning point. "We were looking 1-9 in the face, things hadn't gone real well, but we turned around and won that series. Those guys sort of came together and said that was enough, that we were a better club than this."

Whether the Mountaineers will have enough to win the SoCon title for the first time since 1984 is another question, given the strength of a league that ranks No. 8 in the nation, out of 30 conferences, in the RPI. Eight of the 10 SoCon teams have winning records this season.

"It is really an incredible year for this conference," Pollard said. "We are one of the best conferences in college baseball, and you look, and there's just five games separating first place and seventh place in this conference."

Elon finished first in the regular season for the second time in three years, ending up one game ahead of the College of Charleston. The top seven teams had winning records in conference games.

"It's a credit to the conference that we're having as strong of a year as we are on the national scene yet there is this much balance within the conference," Pollard said. "You really can't single out any team as a favorite to win the tournament. The Citadel is going in as the eighth seed, but they lead the conference in pitching.

"There are a lot of teams with different strengths. College of Charleston and Georgia Southern can outslug you, and a team like Furman has been very good on the mound all year. There really isn't a clear-cut favorite."

Appalachian swept Furman in a three-game series May 9-11 but will most likely face ace Jay Jackson (9-2, 2.81 earned-run average) on Wednesday. Matt Andress (8-4, 5.38) is scheduled to start for the Mountaineers.

• Tommy Bowman can be reached at 727-7320 or at tbowman@wsjournal.com.