MONTGOMERY, Ala. –
Darin Horn struck out eight over five strong relief innings, and Coastal Carolina stayed alive in the Sun Belt Conference Baseball Championship presented by Troy University with an 8-2 victory over App State in an elimination game Thursday at Dabos Park.
The Chanticleers (37-20) advance to face the loser of Thursday night's Texas State-Louisiana game on Friday at 4 p.m. ET.
Coastal never trailed, scoring twice in the third inning after
Ty Barrango crossed the plate on a throwing error and Trace Mazon added an RBI single.
Domenico Tozzi extended the lead to 3-0 with a solo home run in the fourth.
App State (30-24) pulled within 3-2 with single runs in the fifth and sixth innings, but Horn entered with runners on the corners and one out in the fifth and escaped the jam with a strikeout. He allowed just two hits the rest of the way as Coastal shut out the Mountaineers over the final three innings.
The Chanticleers answered App State's sixth-inning run with two of their own as
Colby Thorndyke and Barrango delivered RBI doubles for a 5-2 advantage. Coastal broke the game open in the seventh on RBI hits from Rex Watson and Mazon before a throwing error plated another run and pushed the lead to 8-2.
Horn (8-1) earned the win after allowing one run in five innings of relief.
Cameron Flukey struck out six over the first four innings.
Mazon led Coastal's 14-hit attack by going 3-for-4 with two RBIs.
Blake Barthol,
Walker Mitchell, and Watson had two hits each.
Nick Dirito (5-2) took the loss for App State after surrendering five runs on 10 hits in 5.2 innings.
