BOONE, N.C. -- Chris Ohmstede homered twice and drove in five runs, and Jacques de Gruy delivered solid pitching to lead Furman to a 9-2 victory in game two of day-night Southern Conference doubleheader at Smith Stadium Friday evening.
Appalachian State won the first game, 11-7.
The Paladins (23-30, 11-14 SoCon) and Mountaineers (19-32, 11-14 SoCon) will play Saturday at 3:00 p.m. in the series finale, with the winner poised to claim fifth place in the final regular season standings and the loser either seventh or eighth place. The top six teams advance into Southern Conference double elimination round, while teams finishing seventh through ten in the standings will play single elimination preliminary round games beginning on Tuesday at Charleston's Joseph P. Riley Park.
With Furman leading 2-1 after four innings, Hunter Burton led off the fifth with a single, stole second, and advanced to third on fielder's choice that allowed Jake Jones to reach base. After Greg Harrison drove home Burton with an RBI single, Ohmstede unloaded on Appalachian State starting pitcher Tyler Moore, belting a three-run shot over the left field fence to give the Paladins a 6-1 lead.
An inning later Ohmstede touched up Moore again with two-run blast, also to left field, driving home Harrision, who had reached on a two-out single, for an 8-1 advantage.
The ample run support backed up excellent starting pitching by de Gruy (4-3), who surrendered only two runs on three hits over seven innings. The Mountaineers didn't register a hit until the fifth inning and trailed 8-1 when de Gruy gave way to the bullpen for the final two innings.
Led by Ohmstede, whose two roundtrippers keyed a 3-for-5, five-RBI, 2-run performance, and Harrision, who went 4-for-5 with three RBI and two runs, the Paladins banged out 14 hits in the contest, with every starter registering in the hit column.
The two-home run performance by Ohmstede was his second of the season and gave him 30 clouts in his career, moving him ionto a fifth place tie on Furman's all-time ledger with Bob Thomas (1985-88).
Appalachian State, which managed just five hits, was handcuffed by de Gruy, who needed only 88 pitches to cover his seven innings of work.
Moore (9-5) was knocked around for eight runs on 10 hits over six innings, including both Ohmstede long balls. He walked four and struck out one.
In Thursday's opener Furman jumped out to an early 4-0 lead before Appalachian State roared back to tally runs in four consecutive innings en route to an 11-7 victory over the Paladins.
Tyler Zupcic led the Mountaineers, going 4-for-4 and scoring four runs. Jaylin Davis went 3-for-5 and drove in two runs, and Dillon Davis and Tyler Stroup also drove in a pair of runs for Appalachian State.
Furman took a 1-0 lead in the second and added three more in the third in support of starting pitcher Matt Solter, but the Paldins couldn't hold it, allowing single runs in the third and fourh, and three more in the fifth as Appalachian State tied it at 5-5.
The Mountaineers went ahead for good with three more in the sixth, taking advantage of two Paladin errors to go up 8-5 against Paladin reliever and losing pitcher Billy Greenfield (1-4).
Jordan Simpson's solo home run in the seventh cut it to 8-6, and a Greg Harrison RBI double in the eighth made it a one-run game before the Mountaineers put the game out of reach with three runs in the bottom of the eighth.
The strong middle inning production by the Mountaineers made a winner Dallas DeVrieze (1-3), who allowed two runs on six hits over 4 1/3 innings in relief.
The Paladins out-hit the Mountaineers 13-11, with Carter Grote going 3-for-4. Harrison, Alex Abrams, and Andrew MacLatchie had two hits apiece for Furman.
