Michael Kohn's sacrifice fly drove in Hutson Dodds with the go-ahead run in the eighth, and relief pitcher Russ Tomlinson pitched out of a bases loaded jam in the ninth as College of Charleston completed a three-game Southern Conference series sweep over Appalachian State with a 7-6 victory before 435 at Patriots Point Field on Sunday.
With the win, the Cougars improved to 24-8 overall and 8-1 in league play. The Mountaineers, who out-hit the Cougars 15-9, fell to 19-14 and 7-5.
The Cougars rallied for two runs in the eighth to take the lead for good. Ben Lasater walked with one out and scored on Graham Maiden's triple off the centerfield wall that tied the game at 6-all.
Dodds came on as a pinch-runner and scored when ASU catcher Andrew Franco couldn't hold David Rubenstein's throw from right field on Kohn's shallow fly ball.
The Mountaineers used an error, a walk and a hit batter to load the bases with two outs in the ninth. But, Tomlinson got Nick DeRose to bounce out to second on the first pitch to end the game.
Stuart Haywood had three hits and drove in four runs for Charleston. Haywood had a two-run double in the third, an RBI single in the fifth and a two-out RBI single to center in the seventh that scored Kohn and tied the game at 5-5. Chris Campbell followed with a run-scoring single to center that scored Gabe Marchant for a 5-4 Charleston lead.
ASU answered back in the top of the eighth. Chris Baker singled and DeRose walked with one out. After Jason Altenhof grounder to first moved runners to second and third, Jason Rook delivered a two-out, two-run single to center for a 6-5 ASU lead.
Tomlinson (3-1) picked up the win as he blanked the Mountaineers over the final 1 2/3 innings to earn the win. Garrett Sherrill (6-3) suffered the loss in relief for ASU surrendering four runs on five hits over two innings.
Baker and DeRose combined to reach base nine times. Baker went 4-for-4 with three runs scored while DeRose had two hits, walked twice and scored a run.
The Cougars play at Charleston Southern at 2:30 on Tuesday. Appalachian State plays host to Gardner-Webb at 3:00 on Tuesday.
