BOONE, N.C. — Appalachian State's baseball team returns to action Tuesday with a 4 p.m. road game against North Carolina Central, which plays at the downtown Durham Athletic Park made famous in "Bull Durham."
Brandon Boone (0-1, 3.68 ERA as a starter) is the probable pitcher for the Mountaineers (4-9). Senior right-hander Nick Caregnato (0-1, 4.35 ERA with two starts in six appearances) is the probable starter for N.C. Central (12-4).
App State opened the 2018 season with seven straight road games before welcoming Marshall to Boone for the first home series. With a game in Durham and a league-opening series at Texas State on this week's schedule, the Mountaineers will play 14 of their first 17 games on the road, but the first 11 road games are set to be in-state matchups.
The Mountaineers are scheduled to play 39 of their 55 regular-season games in the state of North Carolina.
INTRODUCING SOME NEW FACES
App State has 13 returning players and 18 newcomers following a 19-36 season in which it stood at 18-24 overall and 7-12 in Sun Belt play before closing against South Alabama, Wake Forest and Coastal Carolina.
There are six seniors among the 13 returnees, and the 18 newcomers are split evenly between nine freshmen and nine transfers, including eight from the junior college level. Four freshmen and four transfers have started in hitting roles, two newcomers have started on the mound and five newcomers have pitched in relief.
Three of the team's five homers have come from newcomers: freshman
Kendall McGowan, freshman
CJ Brown and transfer
Drew Beck. Senior first baseman
Conner Leonard has homered twice, raising his career total to 15 home runs.
STARTING ON THE RIGHT FOOT
With only 28 earned runs allowed in 69.1 innings this season, Appalachian State's starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 3.63. The ERA of App State's starters was at 2.63 entering the Elon series.
Boone has started in two of his three appearances, and he has allowed three earned runs through 7.1 innings as a starter. He went 7-0 with a 2.48 ERA, 75 strikeouts (10.33 per game) and 65.1 innings pitched last year as a sophomore at Brunswick Community College.
RECAPPING THE HISTORY WITH N.C. CENTRAL
The Mountaineers have a 4-1 lead in a series that dates back to 2009.
Appalachian beat the Eagles on back-to-back days last season, winning 9-5 at Charlotte's BB&T Ballpark on March 14 and 7-5 in Durham on March 15.
Bobby Hampton picked up the win as the starter in the second game, while
Tristan Helms and
Reed Howell both pitched in relief.
SCOUTING THE EAGLES
N.C. Central had won seven straight games before dropping a MEAC series finale against North Carolina A&T on Saturday. The streak started with victories against Longwood, Iona (three-game sweep) and Presbyterian.
The Eagles are off to their best start in the program's modern era, and they received their first-ever votes in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) Top 30 Poll last week.
N.C. Central will face App State in Boone on April 17.
PLAYING SHORT-HANDED
Three opening-day starters were sidelined at the beginning of last weekend's series at Elon, and several Mountaineers are rounding into form after missing all or parts of the 2017 season with injuries.
An injury also cut short Friday starter
Andrew Vaccacio's appearance at Elon.
Relief pitcher
Will Herman and outfielder
Beau Myers (the younger brother of MLB outfielder Wil Myers) are both redshirt sophomores after missing last year.
Drake Zupcic, another outfielder, has made two starts at DH as he works toward becoming completely healthy.
HITTING THE GROUND RUNNING
When App State held a 10-1 lead after three innings at Western Carolina, it was the first time the Mountaineers reached double figures in the first three innings of a game since the 2012 team that won a SoCon title and reached an NCAA Regional scored 10 runs in the first three innings of a 15-4 win against Rider.
App State has posted at least 11 hits in four games this season. It also had nine hits in one game.
