KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Appalachian State Baseball begins its third season under head coach
Kermit Smith with a road series at Tennessee, starting Friday at 4:30 p.m.
Game 2 is scheduled for Saturday at 2 p.m., followed by Sunday's finale at 1 p.m. All three games are available via the SEC Network +/WatchESPN, and audio will be available via UTSports.com.
App State Baseball would like to thank AutoStar Nissan of Boone for serving as the presenting sponsor of the 2019 season.
Here are the probable pitching matchups:
OPENING ACROSS THE BORDER
In Smith's first two seasons, App State's other games against SEC competition were an 8-4 loss at No. 5 South Carolina in 2017 and a three-game series that same year at No. 26 Missouri, which won all three games. A matchup with South Carolina scheduled to be played in Charlotte last season was rained out.
The Mountaineers opened the 2017 season against VMI in Wilmington, N.C., and the 2018 season at UNCG.
BREAKING DOWN THE ROSTER
App State welcomes 17 newcomers and returns 16 letterwinners, including seven position players who were 2018 starters, three pitchers who started multiple games in 2018 and two of its top three relievers.
With freshmen
Alex Leshock,
Bailey Welch and
Kendall McGowan accounting for the top three batting averages last season, Appalachian went 10-9 over the final month of the season. In all, seven of the team's top eight hitters from last season are back.
The team's 8-7 record over its last 15 games in the Sun Belt Conference (No. 8 RPI among 31 leagues) coincided with then-freshman
Will Sprinkle's move into the weekend rotation. That finish included a series win at ULM, a road sweep of UT-Arlington and a Senior Day win against No. 16 Coastal Carolina.
PROJECTING THE WEEKEND
Will Sprinkle, who ranked second on the team with a 2.96 ERA last season, is the projected Game 1 starter against Tennessee. He had a 2-1 record in his five Sun Belt starts with road wins against ULM (4-1) and UTA (6-4). He left with a lead with two away in the fifth inning of an 11-7 victory against Coastal Carolina to close the season.
Tyler Tuthill, a left-handed freshman from Clayton, N.C., is the projected Game 2 starter in Knoxville. The projected Game 3 starter is sophomore right-hander
Cameron Kepley, who made two starts in 2018 and had 29 strikeouts in 27.2 innings. In his second start, he recorded eight strikeouts and gave up one run on four hits in 4.1 innings against Western Carolina.
FINDING TIES TO TENNESSEE
Country music star
Luke Combs, an App State alum, has a Friday night concert at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville … The Mountaineers' roster has two Tennessee natives in outfielder
CJ Brown, who hit five home runs last season as a newcomer from Motlow State near Lynchburg, Tenn., and third baseman
Luke Allison, who redshirted while recovering from surgery following his transfer from Motlow State. Allison is from Goodlettsville, Tenn., and Brown is from Mount Juliet, Tenn.
ASSESSING THE BULLPEN
App State moves forward without 2018 closer
Luke Watts, who had a team-leading 2.29 ERA in 30 appearances, but the Mountaineers bring back right-handers
Kaleb Bowman,
Andrew Papp and
Jason Cornatzer.
Bowman had a 2-0 record last season and ranked second on the team (sixth among Sun Belt pitchers during the regular season) with 25 appearances. In his best 19 combined outings, he had an ERA of 0.88 with 36 strikeouts and just three earned runs allowed over 30.2 innings.
Papp ranked third on the 2018 team with a 3.29 ERA and had a 1-0 record with one save in 15 appearances. Cornatzer ranked fourth on the team with a 3.55 ERA in nine appearances as a freshman.
SCOUTING THE PITCHING
App State pitchers combined for 430 strikeouts last season, the third-highest total in program history even though the Mountaineers played just 54 games, and the team ERA of 4.93 was App State's lowest mark since 2013. Additionally, the .268 batting average against App State pitchers was the program's lowest mark since 2012.
Leading the way was Friday starter
Colin Schmid, who became a 13th-round draft pick of the St. Louis Cardinals.
Brandon Boone, a candidate to start midweek or weekend games this year, had 50 strikeouts in 50.1 innings last year. He had a 3.33 ERA as a starter heading into his final start of the 2018 season.
SCOUTING THE OFFENSE
With six players reaching double figures in doubles, App State had 93 last year to post its highest total since 2013, and the Mountaineers hit 15 home runs over the final 20 games.
Joel McDaniel led the team in both home runs (six) and doubles (13), while
Riley Smith had a team-high 31 runs scored.
Drew Beck's 24 RBIs were the most among App State's returning players.
SCOUTING THE DEFENSE
App State's fielding percentage of .969 in 2018 ranks as the fourth-best total in school history, and rising senior
Riley Smith led Sun Belt catchers during the regular season with 23 thrown-out steal attempts. He won the Rawlings NCJAA DII Gold Glove Catcher of the Year award in 2017 at Catawba Valley Community College.
PREVIEWING THE SUN BELT
D1Baseball lists sophomore outfielder
Alex Leshock as the Sun Belt's No. 4 prospect for the 2020 draft and puts classmate
Kendall McGowan at No. 14.
Leshock led the team with a .253 average, five triples, 11 stolen bases and a .350 on-base percentage as a freshman.
This summer, McGowan was recognized as a member of the 2018 Perfect Game/Rawlings Summer Collegiate All-America third team after he won the Coastal Plain League's regular-season batting title with a .392 average and finished the regular season among the league leaders in on-base percentage (first at .480), doubles (first with 20), stolen bases (third with 22), slugging percentage (third at .642), hits (third with 58) and RBIs (fifth with 36).
D1Baseball ranks pitcher
Tyler Tuthill as the league's No. 2 impact freshman, has outfielder/pitcher
Phillip Cole at No. 9 and lists freshman pitcher
Austin Primm at No. 17,
The 6-foot-3, 211-pound Tuthill went 6-0 with a 1.53 ERA as a junior at Clayton High School before spending his senior year at the Pro5 Baseball Academy, which is the first full-time academy for baseball in North Carolina
Cole was named an NCBCA all-state selection and conference player of the year at Western Alamance High School after batting .419 with five homers, 33 RBIs, 36 hits, 27 runs scored and a .495 on-base percentage as a senior.
Primm had ERAs of 1.97 and 1.27 with a combined 14 wins in his final two years of high school at North Gaston.
LOOKING BACK AT 2018
Some highlights from last season, coach
Kermit Smith's second in Boone:
• Led 10-1 after three innings of a 13-3 win at Western Carolina on Feb. 27.
• Won 6-0 at N.C. Central on March 13 to post its first shutout under Smith.
• On April 6, beat 2018 NCAA participant Troy 5-2 to give Smith his 500th win.
• On April 21,
Conner Leonard and
Riley Smith hit consecutive two-out homers in the sixth inning at ULM to produce a 3-1 lead for
Will Sprinkle, who picked up a win in his first career start and clinched the road series for App State.
• On May 2, pitchers
Brandon Boone,
Kaleb Bowman,
Andrew Papp and
Luke Watts combined on a three-hit shutout in a 2-0 win against 2018 NCAA participant North Carolina A&T.
• On May 5, won 5-0 at UT-Arlington to give App State back-to-back shutouts for the first time since the opening week of the 2011 season.
• On May 6, after sweeping a series-opening doubleheader, prevailed 6-4 to post App State's first three-game sweep in conference play since the highly decorated 2012 team took a three-game set at Wofford.
• On May 19, capped a 21-inning day with two-plus games by winning 11-7 against Coastal Carolina on Senior Day. Took control with its highest-scoring inning of the season — a six-run fourth that included seven walks and two hit batters.
