BOONE, N.C. – Following a three-game sweep over UMass Lowell, App State is back in action on Tuesday in a mid-week matchup against ETSU in Johnson City. First pitch from Thomas Stadium is set for 3 p.m.
SCOUTING THE MOUNTAINEERS
App State is 4-3 on the season after taking all three games from UMass Lowell over the weekend in Hickory. App State won each game in a different fashion, including a 1-0 shutout on Friday and a 14-10 win on Sunday that saw the Black and Gold overcome a six-run deficit. Charlotte transfer
Juan Correa has led the Mountaineers at the plate with four home runs and 10 RBIs through seven games, good for a 1.181 OPS. Ole Miss transfer
John Kramer and Siena transfer
Tyler Figueroa have also each homered twice and are both batting above .300. On the Mound,
Caleb Cross leads the Mountaineers with a 0.93 ERA through two starts, while
Jordan Fisher locked down the first two saves of his career over the weekend.
SCOUTING THE BUCCANEERS
ETSU is off to a 5-2 start to the season, following a series win over Miami (OH) this past weekend. ETSU was picked in a tie for fourth in the SoCon preseason rankings, following a 2024 campaign that saw the Bucs win 36 games and saw slugger Cameron Sisneros selected in the 14th round of the 2024 MLB Draft by the Chicago Cubs. This season ETSU is led at the plate by Grant Gallagher, who is batting a team-high .387, while pacing the Bucs with four home runs through seven games. ETSU pitching has combined to post a 3.57 ERA so far this season, striking out 58 batters while allowing just 26 walks. The Buccaneers had six players selected as either first or second team All-SoCon in the preseason, highlighted by Michael Harpster, who was named Co-Preseason Pitcher of the Year.
SERIES HISTORY
App State and East Tennessee State have faced off 141 times since their first game in 1955. The Mountaineers lead the series 81-60, including a season sweep last season, winning 9-6 in Johnson City and a12-11 walk-off win in Boone.
BOMBS AWAY
Highlighted by a four-homer game against High Point on Tuesday App State has continued its power surge over the past three seasons. App State set a program record by hitting 96 home runs in 2024, eclipsing the previous record of 90 set by the 1986 team. App State finished the season second in the Sun Belt and 32
nd nationally in home runs-per-game with 1.75. App State has seen a major uptick in the power department the last two seasons, slugging 67 home runs in 2023 after just 29 the year prior.
Banks Tolley set the single-season program record with 26 home runs, while
CJ Boyd added 18 (eclipsing his previous single-season record of 17 in 2023), while
Austin St. Laurent added 14 dingers.
YEAR HOME RUNS GAMES HR/GM
2025 12 7 1.71
2024 96 55 1.75
2023 67 55 1.23
2022 29 53 0.55
CROSS 'EM UP
Caleb Cross enjoyed the best outing of his career on Friday, delivering 5.1 scoreless innings and striking out a career-high 10 batters against UMass Lowell to earn the victory in a 1-0 shutout for the Mountaineers. After missing the 2024 season due to injury, Cross has excelled in his first two outings in 2025, combining to go 1-0 with a 0.93 ERA (1 ER/9.2 IP) and 14 strikeouts. Cross ranks tied for fifth in the Sun Belt in strikeouts and tied for eighth in ERA through two outings. The redshirt senior right-hander joined the Mountaineers in 2022 as a transfer from UNC Asheville, reuniting with his brother Hayden who was a five-year catcher for App State. In Caleb's career on the mound, he has made 38 appearances and nine starts, earning a total of nine victories and posting a 5.60 career ERA. In 2022 he combined with Eli Ellington on a one-hitter against UT Arlington.
1-0 SHUTOUT
App State's 1-0 shutout win over UMass Lowell on Friday marked the first 1-0 shutout for the Mountaineers since May 25, 2021, when App State earned the program's first Sun Belt Tournament victory with a 1-0 shutout over Texas State. The only other shutouts since then were a 10-0 win at ULM on April 23, 2022, and App State's 11-0 takedown of No. 7/8 Coastal Carolina on May 5, 2023. The 1-0 shutout marked just the seventh of its kind since the Mountaineers joined the Divison I ranks. Most notably, App State defeated No. 7 LSU 1-0 in 2012 as part of a series win in Baton Rouge, La.
SOME ZA DELIVERY
Senior second baseman
Joseph Zamora jump-started the Mountaineers' comeback effort on Sunday, belting a grand slam as part of a seven-run home fifth to take the lead. Through five games this season Zamora is batting .500 (10-for-20) with nine RBIs and five runs scored. Zamora ranked 12
th in the Sun Belt last season, batting .371 in conference play.
FANTASTIC FIG
Tyler Figueroa has been a valuable addition to the Mountaineers' lineup this season. The transfer from Siena faced the Mountaineers in a three-game series last year in Hickory as an opponent. He went on to earn 2024 MAAC All-Rookie team honors. The infielder has opened his time with the Mountaineers batting .308 with two doubles, two home runs and seven RBIs through seven games.
STRIKE THROWERS
App State's pitching staff has opened the 2025 season by consistently throwing strikes and getting ahead in counts. After issuing over six walks-per-nine innings in 2023, the Mountaineers trimmed that number to 5.4 walks-per-nine in 2024. So far in 2025, App State's walks-per-nine has plummeted to 4.5. App State has walked four batters or fewer four times this season.
BEHIND THE DISH
Senior catcher
Braxton Church is the only Mountaineers' position player who has been on the field in each of the past three seasons. In his career Church has played in 90 games and made 62 starts. As the Mountaineers' primary catcher last season, Church hit a career-high seven home runs, while reaching base 88 times in 46 games (.404 OPB). The Wilkesboro, N.C. native grew up just half an hour from Boone and comes from a family of Mountaineers. Through seven games Church is batting .259 with a team-high four doubles and five runs knocked in.
NEWCOMER SUCCESS
App State newcomers wasted no time contributing for the Mountaineers this season. Charlotte
Juan Correa blasted a career-high two home runs in the season-opener Feb. 14 against Queens and repeated that effort with two more long balls on Saturday against UMass Lowell. Ole Miss transfer
John Kramer has also gone deep twice and is batting .360 through four games this season.
SUPERB SUN BELT
The Sun Belt continues to be one of the top conferences in college baseball, ranking fifth in the nation in RPI in each of the past two seasons. Last year nine Sun Belt programs finished in the top-100 nationally in RPI with four teams making the NCAA tournament.
PROGRAM TRAJECTORY
- App State has recorded back-to-back 30-win seasons for the first time since 2012-13
- The Mountaineers have finished in the top-100 nationally in RPI three of the past five seasons
- App State has finished among the top-six in the Sun Belt conference standings three of the past four seasons
- App State is the only Sun Belt team to have won at least one game at each of the last four conference tournaments
2024 RECAP
The 2024 App State baseball team posted 33 wins, the most for the program since 2012, and for the second consecutive year won 30 games and made it to the Sun Belt Tournament semifinals.
Along the way, App State shattered several individual and team records.
Banks Tolley was named a Second Team All-American by ABCA/Rawlings, becoming the first Mountaineer since Daniel Kassouf in 2012 to earn All-American honors. Tolley and
Austin St. Laurent were named All-Sun Belt honorees, and both were selected to the Southeast All-Region team. Tolley was named the Sun Belt's Newcomer of the Year, and St. Laurent was later drafted by the Seattle Mariners in the 14th round of the MLB Draft.
App State finished with an RPI of 72, the best mark in
Kermit Smith's tenure, highlighted by a series win over No. 13 Coastal Carolina, which marked the first win over a top-15 program since the 2012 team took two of three from No. 7 LSU in Baton Rouge. The team posted 16 wins in Sun Belt play, winning six conference series for the second straight year. App State clinched a top-six seed in the Sun Belt tournament on a walk-off grand slam from
Banks Tolley in the final home series of the season against Georgia Southern. It capped a three-homer game for Tolley which tied the program record for a game. Tolley also set the single-season home run record with 26 home runs, while
CJ Boyd set the App State career home run record with 35.
WHERE THEY RANKED – 2024
| STAT |
VALUE |
Sun Belt Rank |
National Rank |
| Hit by pitch |
124 |
2nd |
6th |
| Home runs |
96 |
2nd |
38th |
| Runs |
484 |
3rd |
27th |
| Fielding percentage |
.977 |
1st |
44th |
| Batting average |
.296 |
4th |
63rd |
| On-base percentage |
.411 |
3rd |
32nd |
| Slugging percentage |
.508 |
1st |
39th |
The team set all-time records for home runs (96) and runs scored (484) and finished in the top-10 in App State history in hits, slugging, OPS and stolen bases. The pitching staff also recorded 446 strikeouts, the second-most in team history.
RPI BY YEAR (UNDER KERMIT SMITH)
2024 - 72
2023 - 88
2022 - 120
2021 - 167
2020 - 62 (SEASON CUT SHORT DUE TO COVID-19 AFTER 16 GAMES)
2019 - 189
2018 - 182
2017 - 183
UP NEXT
App State will host its first games of the season at Smith Stadium in Boone as the team welcomes Gardner-Webb for a three-game weekend series. First pitch on Friday and Saturday is set for 1 p.m., while the series finale will be played at 1 p.m. on Sunday.
