BOONE, N.C. — With a four-game winning streak that includes a weekend sweep of its first Sun Belt Conference series, App State faces Charlotte on Tuesday at Atrium Health Ballpark, the new minor league home of the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers in downtown Kannapolis.
It will be the first official game in a $52 million stadium that opened last May, in the same year that no minor league baseball was played. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m., and the game will be streamed on CUSA.TV, which requires a subscription and can be accessed by clicking HERE.
In the three-game sweep of Arkansas State over the weekend, App State needed to use only six of its pitchers as it improved to 3-0 in the Sun Belt for the first time since making its league debut in 2015.
App State and Charlotte have played 23 times prior to Tuesday, but this will be their first meeting since 2006, when the Mountaineers lost 4-3 at Charlotte and played the 49ers to a 13-13 tie in Boone. App State last played in Kannapolis in 2008, when it hosted a three-game series against Canisius at Fieldcrest Cannon Stadium (then the home of the Kannapolis Intimidators).
App State's roster includes 14 players from Charlotte or the greater Charlotte area, plus one player from just across the border in Fort Mill, S.C. Among the Mountaineers' primary starters, preseason All-Sun Belt 2B Luke Drumheller (Olympic HS in Charlotte) and CF Alex Leshock (Marvin Ridge HS in Waxhaw) are from the Charlotte area.
Probable mound starter Ben Peterson made his first career start last Tuesday in his third career appearance and earned the win on a "staff day" by throwing two scoreless innings before exiting with a 5-0 lead.
App State currently leads the Sun Belt with a fielding percentage of .984 (second-place UTA is at .970). With 10 errors, App State's total is the lowest in the league, followed by Little Rock's 16 (in 16 games), and the Mountaineers have allowed five unearned runs in their 18 games entering Tuesday.
App State's 129 strikeouts on offense are also the fewest in the Sun Belt, compared to 152 from the Mountaineers' opponents.
