Mark Appel was pitching for Stanford tonight in the Super Regional against Florida State. The Pirates’ number one draft pick was cruising through three innings, giving up a walk and a hit and striking out one, needing 47 pitches to get to that point. However, the right-hander fell apart in the fourth inning.
Appel started off the inning with back-to-back singles. He followed that up by going 1-2 on the next batter, before hitting him with a pitch, his second hit batter of the game. An error by the shortstop brought in the first run of the game, and kept the inning without any outs.
Appel then saw some control issues. He walked the next two batters, with the second walking on four pitches, bringing in two runs. After back-to-back singles brought in two more runs, Appel threw a wild pitch, bringing in the sixth run of the inning.
The right-hander got his first out with a swinging strikeout. He gave up a sacrifice fly for the second out, making the score 7-1, but got out of the inning against the next batter with another strikeout.
Appel was pulled after four innings, giving up seven runs (five earned) on five hits and four walks, with three strikeouts. His control was off, especially in the fourth inning. He ended up throwing an alarming 48 pitches in the inning, ending the day at 95 pitches. Putting that in perspective, the Pirates usually pull pitchers if they’re at 30 pitches in a single inning, regardless of what inning they’re in.
If Stanford loses the best of three series this weekend against Florida State, that will end Appel’s season.
