Box Score

ELON, N.C. -- After splitting the first two games of a key Southern Conference baseball series, the Elon Phoenix came out hot and rolled to an 11-2 victory over 29th-ranked Appalachian State at Latham Park on Sunday. 

David Whitehead (1-2) picked up his first win of the season for Elon (14-11, 8-4 SoCon) after he allowed just two runs on five hits in six innings.  Jordan Darnell went three scoreless innings to claim his second save of the year.

The Phoenix offense saw Garrett Koster drive in a career-best five runs, including four on a sixth-inning grand slam, as the team belted out 12 hits and matched its season-high with 11 runs scored.  All nine of Elon's starters had at least one hit and seven of the nine scored at least one run.

"If (Whitehead) commands his fastball then he is going to be successful," said Elon skipper Mike Kennedy.  "He pitched well and we needed every one of those innings.  We had some really good at bats early on.  We had guys in scoring position early in the game and we had several guys come up and do something well."

Elon got things going quickly in the first inning as Niko Fraser was hit by a 1-1 pitch.  With one out, Alex Swim singled to put runners on the corners and extend his hitting streak to 18 games.  Koster followed by reaching on an error and drove home Fraser with the game's first run.  Ryan Kinsella followed with a single to drive home the second run before a Joey Tomko sacrifice fly gave the maroon and gold a 3-0 lead.

The Phoenix extended its lead to 5-0 in the second thanks to a RBI single by Sebastian Gomez and a double from Swim.

Appalachian State (18-5, 7-2) scored its only two runs in the third.  The first came in when Will Callaway's sac fly plated Trey Holmes and the second scored when Hector Crespo raced home on a Daniel Kassouf single.

Elon immediately responded, scoring a run in the bottom of the third on a Quinn Bower single. 

The score remained 6-2 until the last of the sixth when Koster connected for his fifth homer of the year.  It was the first grand slam of Koster's Elon career.  Another sacrifice fly in the seventh brought home the 11th Phoenix run.

ASU's Rob Marcello (3-1) took the first loss of his season after he was charged with seven runs (six earned) on nine hits in 5.1 innings of work.

Elon will be back in action on Tuesday night at 6 p.m. when the Phoenix hosts UNC Wilmington.