BOONE, N.C. – App State Baseball will travel to Arkansas to face Little Rock in the first road series of conference play. Friday and Saturday's games are scheduled for 7 p.m. ET with the finale on Sunday set for 1 p.m. All three games will be broadcast on ESPN+.
SCOUTING APP STATE: The Mountaineers (7-12, 1-2) are coming off a mid-week loss to 13
th ranked North Carolina, falling 4-2, despite out-hitting the Tar Heels 10-7.
Luke Drumheller launched a game-tying home run in the bottom of the eighth inning to knot the score at 2-2, but the Tar Heels responded for two in the bottom of the eighth. The Mountaineers went just 2-for-23 with runners on base, and 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position, stranding 15 on the night.
Last weekend, App State took one of three against Georgia Southern, winning the series finale 11-6 on Sunday. App State tallied 11 hits at the plate, including home runs from
Phillip Cole and
Austin St. Laurent, and a career-high four hits from
Alex Aguila. On the mound, Mountaineer pitching recorded 14 strikeouts in the ballgame, including a career-high nine from
Trey Tujetsch, who earned the win, working six innings.
SCOUTING LITTLE ROCK: The Trojans (10-8, 0-3) have lost four straight, including three last weekend, when they were swept by Georgia State to open conference play, and were outscored 28-15. The Trojans won six of their first seven games to start the season, hosting Eastern Illinois, Western Illinois, and Southern Illinois to open the year. Little Rock is led at the plate by Noah Dickerson, who leads the team in OPS (1.309), home runs (6), and RBIs (21). As a team the Trojans are aggressive on the base paths, stealing 37 bases in attempts on the year. On the mound, despite relatively pedestrian strikeout numbers, Trojan pitchers have done well at getting outs on balls put in play, with opponents' batting just .238 against them, and only .190 against weekend starters Hayden Arnold and Hoss Brewer. The Trojans were picked 8
th in the Sun Belt preseason poll.
ON THE BUMP:
RHP Hayden Arnold (3-2, 2.23) vs
LHP Tyler Tuthill (1-4,8.39)
RHP Hoss Brewer (1-0, 2.53) vs
RHP Xander Hamilton (1-2, 4.40)
RHP Erik McKnight (2-1, 4.15) vs
RHP Trey Tujetsch (1-0, 2.19)
SERIES HISTORY: The Mountaineers are 7-8 all-time against the Trojans after taking two of three in the series last season. App State is 4-5 all time at Gary Hogan Field.
LET'S PARTY LIKE IT'S 2012: App State Baseball honored the 10
th anniversary of the 2012 team this past weekend as they host players from that historic tournament run for a bunch on Saturday morning, ahead of game two against Georgia Southern. The 2012 team claimed the Southern Conference regular-season title and returned to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1986, beating Oklahoma and Virginia in the regional round. They came within one win of a Super Regional berth, finishing the season with a record of 41-18. Not only did they set the programs wins record that season, but they defeated four ranked opponents, including back-to-back wins over No. 7 LSU.
RACKIN' UP THE K's: In five starts for the Mountaineers this season,
Xander Hamilton has overpowered opposing hitters, striking out at least nine batters in each outing, and has totaled 51 strikeouts on the season, which leads Sun Belt pitchers, and ranks tied for second in the nation. He also ranks second in the conference in innings pitched (30.2). In contrast, he has walked only nine batters this season. Hamilton has fanned 13 more batters than any other pitcher in the Sun Belt Conference.
GET OUT THE TAPE MEASURE: Phillip Cole jump-started the Mountaineers offense with a second inning home run on Sunday. The long ball was measured at 459 feet, the longest recorded by an App State batter in the Trackman era. It left the bat at 107 miles-per-hour. The homer was Cole's first of the season and eighth of his career. Later in the game,
Austin St. Laurent launched his first home run as a Mountaineer which traveled 427 feet and left the bat at 102 miles-per-hour.
RED HOT CROSS: App State catcher/DH
Hayden Cross has gotten off to a great start to the season. His two-hit game against UNC on Tuesday was his eighth multi-hit game of the year. Cross leads the Mountaineers in AVG (.348), hits (23), RBIs (15), and OBP (.443).
BUILDING BLOCKS: Under the direction of
Kermit Smith, App State went 11-10 in Sun Belt Conference regular season games last season to post the sixth-best record in the 12-team league. It was the program's first winning record and best Sun Belt finish since joining the league in 2015. The Mountaineers also earned their first-ever Sun Belt tourney win with a 1-0 victory against Texas State.
With the Sun Belt ranking as a top-10 league (out of 31 Division I conferences) in each of Smith's first five seasons, the Mountaineers are 33-35 in their last 68 Sun Belt regular season games after winning nine times in 45 Sun Belt regular season games during Smith's first year-and-a-half of rebuilding.
NEXT UP: The Mountaineers will head down the Mountain to Hickory on Tuesday where they will host UNC Asheville in a mid-week contest at 6 p.m. The ballgame will be played at L.P. Frans Stadium, home of the Hickory Crawdads.
The 2022 App State Baseball season is presented by Chick-fil-A.
