Mountaineers Meet No. 13 Demon Deacons in Shelby

BOONE, N.C. –  Following a road sweep of Georgia State over the weekend, the Mountaineers return to North Carolina where they begin the week with a Tuesday matchup in Shelby, N.C. against the 13^th-ranked Wake Forest Demon Deacons. First pitch from Keeter Stadium is set for 6 p.m.
 
SCOUTING THE MOUNTAINEERS
App State enters the week 26-14-1 on the season and 11-9-1 in Sun Belt play, vaulting themselves into fifth place in the conference standings after a 3-0 weekend at Georgia State. The Mountaineers totaled 30 runs over the series and are unbeaten over their last seven contests. Banks Tolley broke a school record for single-season home runs on Friday to gain his 18th home run of the season. The Mountaineers went on to win the game 11-7. On Saturday the team had to work their way back from a 5-1 deficit in the sixth inning. The Mountaineers scored five runs in the seventh to win the game. App State started Sunday's game strong with seven runs in the first and five more in the fourth. App State is led at the plate by the combination of Banks Tolley, Austin St. Laurent, Drew Holderbach and CJ Boyd who all boast an OPS of over 1.000. Out of the bullpen Zach Lewis has made a team-high 17 appearances, including three straight scoreless outings, while Grey LaSpaluto leads the Sun Belt with seven wins.
 
SCOUTING THE DEMON DEACONS
Ranked 13^th in the nation, the Demon Deacons enter the week 16^th in the country in RPI and hold a record of 27-16 overall and 12-12 in ACC play. Ranked 8^th a week ago, Wake Forest dropped a midweek game against Elon and then fell in a weekend series on the road against Notre Dame. Wake Forest is led by a pitching staff which ranks second in the nation with an 11.8 K/9 rate and allows just 7.8 H/9 which ranks 14^th in the country. Offensively, Nick Kurtz leads the ACC with 18 home runs and 47 walks on the season. William Ray has made a team-high 25 appearances out of the Wake Forest bullpen, working to an ERA of 3.37.
 
SERIES HISTORY
App State and Wake Forest have met up 64 times in program history, most recently in 2023 when App State set an attendance record hosting the Demon Deacons at Smith Stadium. Wake Forest won the matchup 10-4, but the Mountaineers held a 3-2 lead going to the fifth inning. The Mountaineers most recently beat Wake Forest on Feb. 26, 2020, edging the No. 24 Demon Deacons 11-9 in Winston-Salem.
 
INSTANT OFFENSE
The Mountaineers offense has been impressive this season, and has scored double-digit runs in 18 games this year, including in six of their last seven contests. Overall, the Mountaineers are averaging 9.4 runs-per-game which leads the Sun Belt and ranks 11th in the nation. The App State offense leads the Sun Belt in batting average (.302), and ranks second in slugging percentage (.519) triples (11), and on-base percentage (.426), third in home runs (70), and fourth in hits (441).

BOMBS AWAY
App State has hit 70 home runs through 41 games this season, which is third among Sun Belt teams and 37th nationally. After hitting just 29 home runs as a team in 2022, App State has seen a major uptick in the power department the last two seasons, slugging 67 home runs in 2023. On Feb. 25 at Siena, Banks Tolley, Braxton Church, and Drew Holderbach hit back-to-back-to-back home runs, marking the first time since April 14, 2017 against Georgia Southern that the Mountaineers had hit three consecutive long balls in a game. App State tied a program record by hitting five home runs in a ballgame, doing so twice this season, once against Queens on March 19 and once against Troy on April 13. It marks the third and fourth times in program history and the first time since 2008 that App State has gone deep five times in a game. The program record for home runs in a season is 90, established in 1986, but no team had hit more than 67 in the BBCOR bat era (2011-present) prior to this year's team. Banks Tolley broke the record for single-season home runs with his 18th home run against Georgia State on April 26.
 
ALL SAINTS DAY
Redshirt junior Austin St. Laurent has been red hot at the plate as of late, hitting safely in 19 of his last 22 games. Over that span he has gone 44-for-100 (.440), with six home runs, 27 RBIs and 37 runs scored. St. Laurent has slugged 11 home runs this season, eclipsing his total (6) from his first two years combined. After playing first base and shortstop as a freshman and center field as a sophomore, St. Laurent began the season as the everyday third baseman, before shifting to shortstop in mid-April. Overall, he is slashing .366/.431/.628/1.059. He leads the Sun Belt in hits (67) and ranks third in runs scored (60), sixth in average and seventh RBIs (48).
 
TAKE IT TO THE BANKS
Banks Tolley has been seeing the ball well this season, slashing .376/.488/.753/1.241 with 18 home runs and 54 RBIs, starting in all 41 games this season. The Ole Miss transfer has hit safely in 35 of 41 games, including 21 multi-hit efforts. Tolley leads the Sun Belt in home runs, slugging, OPS and total bases, and ranks third in RBIs. On April 2 against High Point, Tolley ripped a single to left field that left the bat at 113.62 miles-per-hour, the hardest hit ball by a Mountaineer in the TrackMan era. April 26 at Georgia State, Tolley crushed his 18^th home run of the season, establishing a new program record.
 
ALL ABOARD
Drew Holderbach has been a valuable addition for the Mountaineers this season, after joining the team as a grad transfer from Rice. The first baseman is slashing .336/.502/.564/1.066 and has tallied 50 hits, 35 walks, and been hit by 17 pitches – compared to just 27 strikeouts, reaching base safely in all 41 games this season. Holderbach belted the go-ahead home run in the March 17 win at Texas State, which was the longest home run hit by a Mountaineer in recorded history, traveling 465 feet. Holderbach tallied an 11-game hitting streak from Feb. 20 through March 10. He ranks tied for second in the Sun Belt in doubles (17) and third in on-base percentage, tied for fourth in walks and eighth in runs scored.
 
X MARKS THE SPOT
After being in-and-out of the lineup this season due to injury, Xavier Moronta has found his groove. The senior blasted a grand slam on Sunday as part of a career-high six-RBI effort. Over the course of the Mountaineers seven-game unbeaten streak Moronta has tallied 14 hits and 19 RBIs. The Mountaineers hope Moronta can regain his 2023 form down the stretch. The Miramar, Fla. native Moronta started all 55 games for the Black & Gold last season, slashing .339/.444/.459 and reached base safely in 47 of 55 games.
 
SUPER STEENSMA
After recording seven saves as a closer his freshman season, Jackson Steensma has been superb since moving into the starting rotation as a sophomore. Steensma has made 11 starts this season, going 5-2 with a 4.17 ERA. Steensma has struck out 56 batters in 54 innings of work, a mark that ranks tied for seventh in the conference overall, including a conference leading 21 looking strikeouts. Steensma has held opponents to a .227 average this season which ranks fourth in the conference. Steensma registered a career-high ten strikeouts in a win over Troy on April 13 and has combined for 20 strikeouts and just two walks across his last three starts. The sophomore also took a no hitter into the fifth inning against Marshall on March 30.
 
LET'S GET WILDER
Senior outfielder Hunter Wilder has been a major on-base threat for the Mountaineers, reaching base in each of his last 23 games. On the season Wilder is reaching base at a .424 clip and he has doubled eight times, all in Sun Belt play.
 
BASHIN' BOYD
After matching a program record with 17 home runs a season ago, CJ Boyd is on pace to eclipse that mark this season, having already gone deep 14 times in 41 games. Boyd has now hit 31 career home runs which ties him for third place on the App State career list, despite playing just 82 games in a Black & Gold uniform. A first team All-Conference selection in 2023, and a preseason All-Conference selection this season, Boyd was ranked as the 64^th best outfielder in the nation on the D1baseball.com midseason rankings. Boyd tallied a walk-off single in the Mountaineers win over ETSU on April 23, almost exactly a year following a walk-off two-run homer against JMU in the 10^th inning in 2023.
 
WHAT A RELIEF
Senior right-hander Grey LaSpaluto is undefeated out of the Mountaineers bullpen this season, boasting a 7-0 record which accounts for the most wins in the Sun Belt this season. Over LaSpaluto's last nine outings he has struck out 17 batters in 12 innings of work. The Mountaineers are 12-3-1 in games in which LaSpaluto pitches. He has struck out a career-high five batters three times this season, including in Sunday's victory at Georgia State.
 
HIT ME WITH YOUR BEST SHOT
App State has registered a .426 on-base percentage this season, in large part due to being hit by a lot of pitches. App State batters have been hit 101 times in 41 games, a mark that leads the Sun Belt and ranks fourth in the country. Individually, Drew Holderbach has been hit by 17 pitches, which ranks second in the Sun Belt, while Banks Tolley has been plunked 12 times.
 
LEATHERMEN
Through 41 games this season, the App State defense has committed just 38 errors in 1,434 chances for a team fielding percentage of .974, which ranks third in the Sun Belt and 81^st  nationally. App State has finished with a fielding percentage above .972 just twice in a season in program history.
 
SUPERB SUN BELT
App State enters the week with an RPI of 74, sitting as one of 10 Sun Belt teams inside the top-90 in college baseball. The Sun Belt continues to be one of the top conferences in college baseball, ranking fifth in the nation in RPI, ahead of the Pac12. Last season nine Sun Belt teams finished in the Top-100 in RPI, with four Sun Belt squads advancing to the regional round of the NCAA tournament.
 
2024 Bullets

• Series win over No. 13 Coastal Carolina was the first series win versus a top-15 opponent since the 2012 squad took two of three from No. 7 LSU in Baton Rouge
• App State has set the program record for most home runs in the BBCOR Bat era (since 2011)
• 20 runs against Arkansas State on April 19 were the most since 2019 and most ever against a Sun Belt opponent
• 12-12 tie with the Red Wolves on April 21 was just the eighth tie in program history and the first for the Mountaineers since 2010 against Western Carolina
• 2-0-1 series at Arkansas State was first unbeaten three-game Sun Belt road series since 2018 at UT Arlington
• App State has never before recorded a six-game unbeaten stretch in Sun Belt play

 
UP NEXT
App State will host South Alabama this weekend for a three-game series in a set with significant implications on the Sun Belt standings. The Jaguars enter the week at 10-11 in conference play and just two wins separate third place and tenth place in the league. Friday's game is set for 6 p.m. with the middle game slated for 3 p.m. on Saturday. The series concludes on Sunday with first pitch set for 1 p.m. in the finale. All three games will be broadcast on ESPN+.