BOONE, N.C. — With weekend visits from four Sun Belt Conference opponents and six midweek home games against in-state programs, including two ACC schools, App State baseball coach
Kermit Smith on Friday announced a 54-game regular season schedule for 2021.
The Mountaineers add 10 newcomers and return 29 players from a team that ended an abbreviated 11-6 season in 2020 with six consecutive victories and an RPI of No. 62 nationally, including fourth among Sun Belt teams. Smith, assistant
Justin Aspegren and assistant
Britt Johnson are entering their fifth seasons together in Boone, and
Ryan Smoot has joined the staff as a volunteer assistant.
Weekend home games are tentatively scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. (Fridays), 2 p.m. (Saturdays) and 1 p.m. (Sundays), with midweek home games starting at 5 p.m. Details about fan attendance policies and ways to support App State Baseball are included later in this announcement.
With practice officially beginning Friday, the 2021 season is presented by Chick-fil-A.
"We are pumped about how our schedule came together," Smith said. "This is the most competitive schedule that we have had in my tenure."
Capped by the Sun Belt tournament that starts May 25 in Montgomery, Ala., the current 2021 schedule begins Feb. 19 with a weekend series at Winthrop and includes 20 home dates at Jim and Bettie Smith Stadium over the ensuing three months, with a Saturday home opener against North Carolina A&T on Feb. 27.
Aside from four Sun Belt series in Boone against Arkansas State, Georgia State, ULM and South Alabama, the midweek home opponents are No. 17 Wake Forest, No. 13 NC State, Charlotte, Davidson, North Carolina A&T (twice) and ETSU. App State will also have weekend road series against two in-state programs with recent NCAA tournament appearances: No. 25 East Carolina and UNCW.
There are seven total games scheduled against ACC schools, as the Mountaineers also face Wake Forest in Winston-Salem, travel to NC State and have a three-game series at No. 21 Miami. They also play another Power Five program, No. 18 South Carolina, in Columbia, S.C.
The four road opponents on App State's league schedule are Georgia Southern, Coastal Carolina, Troy and Little Rock — meaning West Division teams Texas State, UTA and Louisiana aren't on the schedule.
Of App State's 30 scheduled nonconference games, 27 are against programs from the Carolinas and Tennessee. In addition to just-beyond-the-border trips to Winthrop in Rock Hill, S.C., and ETSU in Johnson City, Tenn., to open the season, there's also a weekend series in Nashville, Tenn., against Lipscomb.
Overall, App State has 11 games scheduled against teams ranked in D1Baseball.com's Preseason Top 25, and the combined 2020 record of App State's nonconference opponents for 2021 was 134-61 (.687 winning percentage).
"One of our goals in scheduling has always been to give our fans an opportunity to come and see us play," Smith said. "While things are different right now, at the point when fans are allowed to attend games, I think we accomplished that goal of putting together a schedule with games that are accessible to a lot of our fans.
"We are fortunate to have great baseball in our state, which allows us to travel within the region and still play an elite schedule. I cannot wait to get out there with the boys and compete on the 19th."
CURRENT FAN/ATTENDANCE INFO
Due to state, local and university COVID-19 guidelines, the Mountaineers will begin the 2021 season without fans at Jim and Bettie Smith Stadium. Current state guidelines do allow student-athletes to invite up to two family members to their competitions.
With health and safety as the top priority as the Mountaineers begin their 2021 season, fans can show their support by purchasing a Fan Cutout.
The Fan Cutout program supports App State Baseball while enhancing the game day experience at Jim and Bettie Smith Stadium. A Fan Cutout is available for $59 apiece and can be picked up as a keepsake following the conclusion of the 2021 home schedule.
Reserve your Fan Cutout's seat in Jim and Bettie Smith Stadium today by
clicking HERE.
FULL SCHEDULE RUNDOWN
After opening the 2021 schedule with the series at Winthrop (Feb. 19-21 against a program that went 11-4 in 2020) and a Tuesday trip to ETSU (Feb. 23 against a program that went 12-3 in 2020), the Mountaineers play the next four games against North Carolina A&T, alternating between sites on Friday (Greensboro), Saturday (Boone), Sunday (Greensboro) and Tuesday (Boone).
The in-state run continues with a weekend series at ECU (March 5-7), a Tuesday home game against Davidson (March 9), a weekend series at UNCW (March 12-14) and another Tuesday home game against North Carolina A&T (March 16).
— It will be App State's first game since 2017 against ECU, which went 13-4 in 2020, made a Super Regional appearance in 2019 and has appeared in the NCAAs four of the last five years it was held.
— Following a run as SoCon counterparts, App State dropped games in 2015 and 2016 in its most recent meetings with Davidson, which has seven straight winning seasons, including a 13-3 record in 2020 and a Super Regional appearance in 2017.
— UNCW went 11-5 in 2020 and has appeared in the NCAAs four of the last five years it was held, while North Carolina A&T made the NCAAs as recently as 2018.
The Sun Belt ranked as the nation's sixth-best Division I conference in 2020, and App State begins its league schedule at home against Arkansas State (March 19-21) before traveling to Charlotte for a Tuesday night game on March 23. It will be App State's first game against the 49ers since 2006.
The Mountaineers end March with a weekend series at Georgia Southern (March 26-28) and a Tuesday road game against Wake Forest (March 30).
April begins with a series at Coastal Carolina (April 1-3 from Thursday-Saturday before Easter) and a Tuesday game at NC State (April 6). The Mountaineers and Wolfpack last met in 2013, when App State's Jaylin Davis hit a three-run homer in the first inning of a 6-3 road victory.
App State returns home for a weekend home series against Georgia State (April 9-11) before hosting Wake Forest in Boone on the following Tuesday.
In mid-April, App State heads to Lipscomb (April 16-18) before hosting Charlotte on the following Tuesday (April 20) and visiting Troy (April 23-25).
The second part of the home-and-home matchup with NC State is scheduled for a Tuesday in Boone (April 27), and ULM comes to Boone for a Sun Belt series from April 30 to May 2.
With final exams ending the first week of May, App State is set to play a weekend series at Miami from May 7-9, host ETSU on the next Tuesday (May 11) and travel to Little Rock for a weekend series the following weekend (May 14-16).
The final midweek game on the schedule occurs at South Carolina on Tuesday, May 18, before App State wraps up the regular season with a Thursday-Saturday home series against South Alabama (May 20-22).
