BOONE, N.C. – App State Baseball returns to Smith Stadium to host 20
th ranked Texas State in a three-game weekend series. First pitch on Friday is set for 6 p.m., with game two set for 3 p.m. Saturday. The series concludes with an 11 a.m. first pitch on Sunday. All three games will be broadcast on ESPN+.
SCOUTING APP STATE: The Mountaineers (10-13, 3-3) are coming off a midweek win over UNC Asheville, in a contest played at L.P. Frans Stadium in Hickory. The Mountaineers won the ballgame on a walk-off hit by pitch of
Hayden Cross, by virtue of the 10-run-rule, capping a five-run seventh inning.
RJ Johnson tallied three hits, including a double, and drove in three runs, while
Dylan Rogers also enjoyed a three-hit ballgame, finishing a home run shy of the cycle.
Jason Cornatzer earned the win, giving up just one run over four innings, while striking out six.
Grey LaSpaluto picked up a three-inning save, striking out one, while allowing just one base runner.
The win comes on the heels of a series win last weekend at Little Rock. The Mountaineers won in 14 innings on Friday, propelled by
Luke Drumheller's go-ahead two-run double in the top of the 14
th inning. In the rubber game on Sunday, App State rallied from down 4-0 in the first inning to win, 10-5. All nine Mountaineers reached base in the ballgame, and five tallied multi-hit efforts in the win.
SCOUTING TEXAS STATE: The Bobcats (20-6, 5-1) are coming off a midweek loss to Sam Houston, 12-9, on Tuesday. Texas State has gotten off to a great start in conference, sweeping Arkansas State two weeks ago, before taking two of three from Coastal Carolina last week. They come into play ranked 20
th in the nation, and boast an RPI of 40. Most notably they took two of three from 11
th ranked Arizona the first week of March, and followed that up by splitting a two-game set with top-ranked Texas.
Senior, Dalton Shuffield, leads the team offensively with an OPS of 1.240, six home runs, and a team-high 24 RBIs. He is also 10-11 in stolen base attempts this season. John Wuthrich has belted seven home runs to lead a squad that has hit 28 long balls in 26 games. The Bobcats pitching staff sports a 3.73 team ERA, including a 2.61 mark from Friday starter Zeke Wood, and a 1.72 mark from Saturday starter Levi Wells.
ON THE BUMP:
RHP Zeke Wood (2-1, 2.61) vs LHP
Tyler Tuthill (1-4, 7.12)
RHP Levi Wells (3-1, 1.72) vs RHP
Xander Hamilton (1-3, 5.25)
TBA vs RHP
Trey Tujetsch (3-0, 3.93)
SERIES HISTORY: The Mountaineers are 2-14 all-time against Texas State, in a series that began when App State joined the Sun Belt in 2015. The lone meeting last season came in the conference tournament, a game that the Mountaineers won, 1-0, to claim the program's first Sun Belt tournament win.
Quinton Martinez,
Ben Peterson (win), and
Eli Ellington (save) each tossed three scoreless innings, combining to allow just four hits while striking out 11. The lone run came on an RBI single from
Luke Drumheller in the sixth inning.
RANKED FOES: The Mountaineers will face a ranked foe for the third time this season when they welcome Texas State to Boone on Friday. Despite losing to No. 23 Duke on Feb. 22, and to No. 13 UNC on March 22, App State was right in both games. In Durham,
Dylan Rogers homered in the first inning, and App State led 4-1 after four. In Chapel Hill,
Luke Drumheller hit a game-tying home run in the top of the eighth inning, before the Tar Heels responded with two runs in the bottom half of the frame. App State is looking for its first win against a ranked opponent since defeating No. 24 Wake Forest, 11-9, on February 26, 2020.
HITTING THE CENTURY MARK: Sunday's win over Little Rock marked the 100
th win for
Kermit Smith since taking over the App State program ahead of the 2017 campaign. Smith ranks fourth on the all-time wins list at App State behind Jim Morris (611), Chris Pollard (244), and Frank Lovrich (125).
BATS HEATING UP: The Mountaineers offense has scored double-digit runs in back-to-back games following a 10-5 win over Little Rock, Sunday, and an 11-1 victory in seven innings Tuesday against UNC Asheville. The Mountaineers are now 5-0 when scoring at least 10 runs in a ballgame this season.
RED HOT CROSS: App State catcher/designated hitter
Hayden Cross has gotten off to a great start to the season. He tallied three more two-hit games this week to give him 10 multi-hit games on the season, compared to only six games this year without a hit, in 21 games played. Cross leads Mountaineer qualifiers in OPS (.898), AVG (.337), hits (28), RBIs (20), SLG (.458), and OBP (.440).
RACKIN' UP THE K's: In six starts for the Mountaineers this season,
Xander Hamilton has overpowered opposing hitters, striking out at least six batters in each outing, and has totaled 57 strikeouts on the season, which leads Sun Belt pitchers, and
ranks eighth in the nation. He also ranks fourth in the conference in innings pitched (36.0).
HEY MR. CARTER: In three appearances over the last week,
Cameron Carter was a big part of the Mountaineer's success on the mound. Carter worked multiple innings in each appearance. He combined to give up just one earned run in 5.1 innings, striking out seven, and he did not walk a batter. Carter has now struck out 17 batters in 17 innings, across eight appearances this season.
LET'S PARTY LIKE IT'S 2012: App State Baseball honored the 10
th anniversary of the 2012 team with a brunch on March 19, ahead of game two of their series 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.
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.
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 35-36 in their last 71 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 hit the road on Tuesday for a mid-week showdown against longtime rival ETSU. First pitch is set for 6 p.m.
The 2022 App State Baseball season is presented by Chick-fil-A.
