MONTGOMERY, Ala. – After a pair of big seventh innings have lifted the Mountaineers to victories over Coastal Carolina and Troy, the sixth-seeded Mountaineers have advanced to the Sun Belt Semifinals where they will meet second-seeded Southern Miss for the second consecutive season. The two teams will face off at 10 a.m. ET and with a win, the Mountaineers would force a rematch at 5 p.m. ET for the right to advance to a winner-take-all championship game on Sunday. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+ and an audio broadcast will also be available on appstatesports.com.
SCOUTING THE MOUNTAINEERS
App State enters Saturday at 33-20-1 on the season and concluded Sun Belt play at 16-13-1. Despite being picked ninth in the Sun Belt preseason poll, the Mountaineers finished in sixth place in the conference standings and rank 69th nationally in RPI. App State's 33 wins this season are the most since 2012 and tied for 10th most in a season in program history. The team has now won at least one game in the Sun Belt tournament in four consecutive years and are the only team in the conference to have done so. The Mountaineers will look to follow a similar path as last year when they staved off elimination three times to force a winner-take-all semifinal with Southern Miss. App State pitching has excelled in the tournament this year, holding the opposition to just a .211 average, with the bullpen posting a 2.91 ERA.
SCOUTING THE GOLDEN EAGLES
Southern Miss enters the matchup 39-18 on the season and went 20-10 in Sun Belt play to finish second in the league. The Golden Eagles are ranked 25th in the nation and are projected to made an NCAA regional for the eighth year in a row, boasting an RPI of 28. Southern Miss has used a pair of eighth inning rallies to win their first two tournament games. The Golden Eagles scored five in the eighth to break a scoreless tie against Coastal in a 5-0 win on Wednesday and then trailing 5-3 against Troy on Thursday scored three in the eighth for another last-at-bat win. The Golden Eagles are led at the plate by Slade Wilks and Ozzie Pratt who were named first and second team All-Conference selections respectively. Defensively, the Golden Eagles rank third in the league with a 3.89 ERA and fourth with a .975 fielding percentage.
SERIES HISTORY
App State and Southern Miss will meet in the Sun Belt semifinals for the second consecutive season, marking the only meetings between the two schools in program history. Last year the Mountaineers knocked off 16th-ranked Southern Miss. 4-2 in game one, scoring four unanswered across the middle innings, while
Grey LaSpaluto fired four innings of one-run ball in relief. The Golden Eagles bounced back for an 11-1 run rule win in game two.
APP AT THE SBC
App State has won at least one game at the Sun Belt tournament in four consecutive seasons and are 7-6 overall in Montgomery. Last year the Mountaineers staved off elimination three times, culminating with a victory over No. 16 Southern Miss to advance to a winner-take-all semifinal for the first time in program history. The Mountaineers previously earned a win over Little Rock in 2022 and Texas State in 2021 for the program's first tournament win. App State's lone conference tournament championship came as a SoCon member in 1984. The Mountaineers have also won six regular season titles, most recently in 2012 when they won a program-record 41 games and advanced to the Charlottesville, Va. regional.
BASHIN' BOYD
With two home runs against Troy on Wednesday,
CJ Boyd broke the App State career home runs record, breaking a tie with Andre Crawford for 33 long balls all-time. After tying Daniel Kassouf's single-season record with 17 home runs last season, Boyd has eclipsed that mark with 18 blasts this year. Boyd has been exceptional at the Sun Belt tournament the last two years, going 15-for-38 (.395) with five home runs and 14 RBIs in eight games in Montgomery. Boyd was named to the Sun Belt All-Tournament team last season after collecting First team Sun Belt honors during the regular season. He has also tallied back-to-back seasons of double-digit home runs, doubles and stolen bases. No other player has accomplished those numbers in a season since Wes Hobson in 2010.
LEATHERMEN
Through 54 games this season, the App State defense has committed just 45 errors in 1,886 chances for a team fielding percentage of .976, which leads the Sun Belt and ranks 48th nationally. App State has finished with a fielding percentage above .972 just twice in a season in program history. App State has played error-free baseball in 23 games this season and committed one error or fewer in 39 of 54 games, and each of its last 12 contests.
BOMBS AWAY
App State has hit 95 home runs through 54 games this season, which ranks second in the Sun Belt and ranks 31st 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 Smith Stadium 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 stadium history and the first time since 2008 that App State has gone deep five times in a game. With
Banks Tolley's home run in the regular season finale, the Mountaineers broke the program record of 90 home runs in a year which had stood since 1986. Overall, App State has accumulated 26 multi-homer games, including nine three-homer games, four four-homer games, and a pair of five-homer efforts.
TAKE IT TO THE BANKS
Banks Tolley continues his banner season for the Mountaineers, headlined by program-record total and league-leading 25 home runs on the season. The Ole Miss transfer has hit safely in 45 of 53 games, including 26 multi-hit efforts. Tolley leads the Sun Belt in home runs, batting average (.384), slugging (.781), and OPS (1.270) and ranks second in the league in total bases (169), and tied for second in RBIs (73), third on-base percentage (.489), and ranks fourth in runs scored (69), and hits (84). 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 single-season program record. May 16 against Georgia Southern, Tolley matched Andre Crawford's program record by hitting three home runs in a game, including a walk-off blast in the 10th inning. Tolley was named the 2024 Sun Belt Newcomer of the Year and garnered First Team All-Conference recognition.
ALL SAINTS DAY
Redshirt junior
Austin St. Laurent has been red hot at the plate as of late, hitting safely in 30 of his last 35 games. Over that span he has gone 61-for-159 (.384), with nine home runs, 39 RBIs and 53 runs scored. St. Laurent has slugged 14 home runs this season, more than doubling 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. St. Laurent ranks among league leaders in hits (86 –1st), triples (4 – T-1st), runs scored (76 – 3rd), batting average (.361 – T-7th), and RBIs (60 – T-6th).
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 reached base safely in each of the Mountaineers first 43 games of the season marking the second-longest on-base streak in program history. He ranks among league leaders in doubles (18 – T-6th), hit by pitch (18 – T-4th), runs scored (62 – T-6th), and walks (38 – T-9th). 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 also hit a go-ahead three-run blast on May 23 to lift the Mountaineers over Coastal in an elimination game in the Sun Belt tournament. He also leads the team with a .993 fielding percentage.
WHAT A RELIEF
Senior right-hander
Grey LaSpaluto has been excellent out of the Mountaineers bullpen this season, boasting an 8-1 record which is tied for the most wins in the Sun Belt this season. Over LaSpaluto's last 16 outings he has struck out 27 batters in 25.0 innings of work. The Mountaineers are 17-5-1 in games in which LaSpaluto pitches. He has struck out a career-high five batters three times this season.
MORE FROM THE PEN…
- The App State bullpen has worked to a 2.91 ERA through two SBC tournament games
- Collin Welch delivered 3.2 scoreless innings in Wednesday's tournament opener
- Cody Little earned the win on Thursday with three innings in relief, striking out three and escaping a bases-loaded jam in the seventh inning
- Ryan Sleeper delivered a scoreless eighth inning on Thursday and followed it up with four innings on Friday, allowing just one hit and no runs for the first 3.2 of the outing
- Zach Lewis escaped a bases-loaded no-out jam to secure the save on Thursday, getting a looking strikeout and game-ending double play
- Max Tramontana entered with the bases loaded and nobody out in the first inning on Friday and was able to limit the damage to just two, working 2.1 scoreless in relief
- Grey LaSpaluto threw 40+ pitches on back-to-back days Thursday and Friday, totaling five strikeouts in 4.2 innings, while allowing three runs on four hits
HIT ME WITH YOUR BEST SHOT
App State has registered a .411 on-base percentage this season, in large part due to being hit by a lot of pitches. App State batters have been hit 122 times in 54 games, a mark that ranks second in the Sun Belt and ranks fifth in the country. Individually,
Drew Holderbach has been hit by 18 pitches, which ranks fourth in the conference.
ONE-HIT WONDER
In game one of the Mountaineers' doubleheader on May 5,
Dante Chirico and
Cody Little combined to one-hit South Alabama, combining for two streaks of 13 consecutive batters retired in the game. Despite allowing a leadoff home run to begin the ballgame, Chirico did not allow a hit thereafter in a career-high seven innings of work. South Alabama finished the game 1-for-29 at the plate. The Mountaineers have now spun a one-hitter in three consecutive seasons, with
Eli Ellington and
Caleb Cross combining to one-hit UT-Arlington in 2022 and
Xander Hamilton and
Seth Whitley combining to one-hit No. 8 Coastal Carolina in 2023.
National Recognition
D1Baseball.com ranked
Banks Tolley (54) and CJ Body (64) as Top-100 outfielders on their midseason rankings. Following week 12 play,
Drew Holderbach was ranked as the 37
th best first baseman in the country,
Austin St. Laurent was named the 28
th best third baseman,
Banks Tolley was named the 14
th best outfielder and
Jackson Steensma was selected as the 142nd-best starting pitcher in the country.
SUPERB SUN BELT
App State enters Saturday with an RPI of 69, sitting as one of nine Sun Belt teams inside the top-75 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
- Five different Mountaineers have tallied an 11-game hitting streak this season
- Five different Mountaineers have recorded a two-homer game this season
- App State won four consecutive Sun Belt series for the first time in program history (ASU, GSU, USA, ODU)
- App State has won at least one Sun Belt tournament game in each of the last four seasons and is the only team in the conference to accomplish that feat
UP NEXT
The Mountaineers will need to defeat the Golden Eagles twice on Saturday to advance to a winner-take-all championship game on Sunday at 2 p.m. ET. All Sun Belt tournament games are streamed on ESPN+ and will have an audio broadcast on appstatesports.com.
