BOONE, N.C. – Coming off a Sun Belt series win over Old Dominion at home last weekend, App State Baseball begins a stretch of four straight games on the road, beginning with a Tuesday matchup against Western Carolina in Cullowhee. First pitch is set for 5 p.m. and the game will be broadcast on ESPN+.
SCOUTING THE MOUNTAINEERS
App State enters the contest 14-13 on the season and 5-4 in Sun Belt play after taking two of three from the Monarchs. Pitching led the way for the Mountaineers in the series win, with
Caleb Cross throwing seven scoreless (and hitless) innings on Friday and
Bradley Wilson following with seven scoreless innings of his own in game one on Saturday, retiring the final 17 batters of the ballgame. Wilson lowered his ERA to a team best 3.13 on the season.
Tyler Lichtenberger leads App State at the plate, batting a league-leading .421 on the season and .516 in Sun Belt play, while
Juan Correa paces App State in the power department with 10 home runs and 27 RBIs.
SCOUTING THE CATAMOUNTS
Western Carolina enters Tuesday's matchup 13-15 on the season and 2-4 in SoCon play after dropping their weekend series at Mercer. Western Carolina's season has been highlighted by three victories against Big Ten teams, taking two of three from Maryland and collecting a mid-week victory over Michigan State. The Catamounts have three different players – Hayden Friese, Brayden Corn and Trent Turner – who are all batting over .335 with at least five home runs on the season. Brandon Langley leads the pitching staff with a 1.23 ERA across 10 relief appearances on the year. The Catamounts were picked sixth out of eight teams in the Southern Conference preseason poll. Friday starter Dusty Revis was named to the preseason first team all-conference team, while Turner, Friese, Jack Spyke and Mason Holton were all second team selections.
SERIES HISTORY
The series between App State and Western Carolina is one of the longest standing in program history, dating back to 1955. The Catamounts lead the series 92-65-1, including a 10-5 victory last season on April 16.
LICHTENBERGER LEADS THE WAY
Freshman shortstop
Tyler Lichtenberger was inserted into the starting lineup the second game of the season and hasn't looked back, reaching base safely in all 26 games played on the campaign. Lichtenberger is batting .421 on the season with leads the Sun Belt, while he also ranks among league leaders in hits (T-3
rd – 40), OBP (6
th - .487), doubles (T-7
th – 9), triples (T-9
th – 2) and sac flies (T-9
th – 3). Lichtenberger is batting .516 in Sun Belt play. On Friday night against Old Dominion, Lichtenberger tallied a career-high four hits, including his first collegiate home run. His .421 average ranks third nationally among freshmen.
UNHITTABLE
Redshirt senior
Caleb Cross was dominant for the Mountaineers in Friday's win over Old Dominion. Cross did not allow a hit in a career-high seven scoreless innings of work. The only three baserunners to reach against him came via walks. Cross got better and better as his outing went on, retiring the final 13 batters he faced. The 7.0 hitless innings are the most by an App State pitcher in the Sun Belt era.
DOUBLE TROUBLE
Through 27 games this season, the App State offense has registered 65 doubles which leads the Sun Belt and 15th nationally.
Braxton Church has already hit a career-high 10 doubles this season, the fourth-most in the Sun Belt, while
Tyler Figueroa and
Tyler Lichtenberger have hit nine apiece. The record for doubles in a season is 168, set in 2007. Individually, David Rubinstein owns the program record with 30 doubles in 2007.
BULLPEN BRAD
After serving as the Mountaineers' Friday night starter last season,
Bradley Wilson has found lots of success coming out of the App State bullpen in 2025. On Saturday against Old Dominion, Wilson threw a career-high 7.0 scoreless innings to earn the win in relief. He allowed just three base runners – all singles – and retired the final 17 batters of the ballgame. The graduate student has allowed one earned run or fewer in 12 of his 14 outings this season. He boasts a 3.13 ERA, which leads the team and ranks ninth in the Sun Belt. Wilson has posted 26 strikeouts in 31.2 innings of work this season, with opponents hitting just .214 against him.
JUAN GONE
App State first baseman
Juan Correa hit his ninth home run of the season in the March 14 victory over Texas State. The senior has now slugged nine home runs through his first 19 games, including a trio of two-homer games – against Queens, UMass Lowell and Wake Forest – to rank 28
th nationally in home runs, despite missing five games due to injury. Correa also ranks among conference leaders in home runs (T-1st – 9), slugging (3
rd - .737), OPS (5
th – 1.135) and RBIs (T-7
th – 25). Last season with the Charlotte 49ers, Correa finished the campaign with 12 home runs in 55 games played but never homered twice in the same contest. His 12 home runs were second on the 49ers and tied for 10
th in the conference. Correa has hit safely in 15 of 17 games this season (in which he has recorded an official at-bat) including a ten-game hitting streak.
PATIENCE PAYS
After not working a single walk in 48 at-bats last season,
Kameron Miller has transformed himself into a very patient hitter in 2025. Miller has walked a team-leading 21 times this season and 17 times in his last 10 games played, including a career-high four walks against Gardner-Webb on Feb. 28. Even with his more patient approach, Miller has improved his power numbers too, slugging .657 on the season, with three doubles and seven home runs.
BOMBS AWAY
Highlighted by a four-homer game against High Point on Feb. 18 and four more homers against Georgia Southern on March 22, 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.
YEAR HOME RUNS GAMES HR/GM
2025 29 27 1.07
2024 96 55 1.75
2023 67 55 1.23
2022 29 53 0.55
FOR THE GREATER GOOD
App State has hit 18 sacrifice flies this season which ranks second in the Sun Belt and ranks 18th in the country. Ten different players have hit at least one sac fly, with
Braxton Church's four sac flies leading the team. For comparison, App State finished 2024 with 25 sacrifice flies.
GRAHAM SLAM
Redshirt sophomore
Graham Smiley has had a knack for the big moment in his career with the Mountaineers. Smiley belted the game-winning double in the bottom of the tenth inning to lift App State to an 11-10 win over High Point on March 25. The redshirt sophomore also blasted a go-ahead grand slam in the top of the ninth inning against Georgia Southern on Saturday, his third career grand slam in just 32 games played. This season Smiley has registered 12 hits in 13 games with nine of them going for extra bases.
GONE FISHING
Redshirt junior
Jordan Fisher has acceded from a walk-on in 2022 to a high-leverage reliever this season. Fisher struck out the side with the bases loaded in the 11
th inning on March 15 to earn the win against Texas State and followed with two more strikeouts in the ninth inning the following day to secure the save. Fisher's four saves this season rank third in the Sun Belt and ranks 35
th nationally. He has struck out 23 batters in 15.1 innings good for a 13.5 K/9 rate. Fisher is tied with
Bradley Wilson for a league-high 14 appearances this season.
SOME ZA DELIVERY
Senior second baseman
Joseph Zamora helped the Mountaineers secure their first series win against Texas State with a walk-off single in the 11
th inning on March 15 and hit a game-tying double in the ninth inning on Tuesday to force extra-innings. Through 22 games played this season Zamora is batting .313 with 19 RBIs and 23 runs scored. Zamora strikes out just 9.9% of plate appearances, which is the fifth-best rate in the conference.
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 dropped to 4.9. App State has walked four batters or fewer 14 times through 27 games, including a contest against Old Dominion on March 29 in which App State pitching did not walk a batter. It marked the first time since April 20, 2024 against Arkansas State that App State did not walk a batter in a ballgame.
SUPERB SUN BELT
The Sun Belt continues to be one of the top conferences in college baseball. Southern Miss enters the week ranked 13
th in the country by D1Baseball, while Troy comes in at No. 21 and Coastal Carolina is No. 21. Currently six Sun Belt schools rank in the top-100 RPI nationally. Last year the league finished with nine teams in the top-100 and four making the NCAA Tournament.
UP NEXT
App State continues its road swing by traveling to ULM for a three-game Sun Belt weekend series. First pitch on Friday is set for 7 p.m. ET, with game two on Saturday slated for 3 p.m. The series concludes on Sunday with first pitch set for 2 p.m. in the finale. All three games will be broadcast on ESPN+.
