BOONE, N.C. - For the second weekend in a row, the App State Mountaineers will play at their newly constructed home, this time welcoming the ULM Warhawks to Boone for a pivotal Sun Belt Conference series. ULM enters the weekend in a tie for second place in the league's standings with an 8-4 record, but the Mountaineers are just two games back from it. Friday's and Sunday's games are slated to start at noon while Saturday's game will kick off at 2 p.m.
App State and ULM are scheduled to meet for the first time since the 2022 season this weekend. It will also be the Warhawks' first trip to Boone since 2021. App State holds a slight 10-9 advantage in the all-time series with the Warhawks and enters the weekend having bested ULM in five of the last six meetings between the two programs.
The Matchup
- Who: App State (16-21, 6-6 SBC) vs. ULM (28-15, 8-4 SBC)
- Where: Boone, N.C. // Sywassink/Lloyd Family Stadium
- When: Friday, April 11 – Sunday, April 13
Tune In
- Live Stats: appstatesports.com
Last Time Out
Fueled by back-to-back home runs to lead off the game and a complete-game shutout in the circle by
Sophie Moshos, the App State Softball team rolled past the Gardner-Webb Runnin' Bulldogs in Boiling Springs to earn their first midweek win of the season 8-0. The Mountaineers smacked 14 hits in Wednesday's game, tying their season high for hits in a game, which was set on March 29 against James Madison.
App State saw three different players record three-hit games against the Runnin' Bulldogs in
Makayla McClain,
Macy Hamby and
Marti Henkel. Additionally, two players drove home at least two runs as McClain drove in three runs and
Julia Girk produced two RBIs from the eight-hole in the App State lineup. McClain's three RBIs marked her 12th game this season with at least two RBIs, which leads the team.
In her team-leading 18th start of the season, the Mountaineers got one of Moshos' best starts of the year as she posted a complete-game shutout on just 96 pitches. The lefty struck out seven hitters and did not let a single runner get past second base in the game. The win marked her 11th victory of the season, which puts her in a tie for eighth place on App State's single-season wins list.
Leading Off
The Mountaineers' series win over Marshall last weekend marked its second consecutive Sun Belt series victory. App State swept James Madison to round out the month of March in Harrisonburg a week prior. App State hadn't won back-to-back Sun Belt series since taking two-of-three from ULM and Georgia Southern in consecutive weeks back in 2022.
The Mountaineers' Game 3 win over the Herd last Saturday gave them six Sun Belt wins for the season. The last time App State posted six conference wins in a season was in 2022. Head coach
Whitney Jones currently holds the second-most conference wins for an App State first-year head coach and trails only Shae Wesley on that list, who posted 15 SoCon wins in her first season in 2011.
App State's offense has been one of the hottest in the country over the past seven games as the Mountaineers enter play on Friday having scored 62 runs in their last seven games, which is good for an average of 8.9 a game. The Mountaineers have plated at least eight runs in each of their last four games after tallying eight runs in a shutout victory over Gardner-Webb on Wednesday. The last time App State scored at least eight runs in four straight games was from March 5-7, 2022.
Additionally, the Mountaineers enter play on Friday with 15 home runs in their past seven games, highlighted by a five-homer outburst against James Madison on March 28. App State's five home runs against the Dukes in Harrisonburg to open the series is the third-most hit in a game by a Sun Belt team this season. The Mountaineers have hit at least two home runs in five of their last seven contests.
The App State duo of McClain and Moshos swept the Sun Belt's weekly awards last week, with McClain winning SBC Player of the Week and Moshos garnering SBC Pitcher of the Week, which was App State's first as a member of the league. The last time the Mountaineers swept their conference's weekly awards was just over 16 years ago when Katie Boyd and Ashley Stubbs swept the SoCon weekly awards on Feb. 23, 2009.
Scouting the Mountaineers
App State has been one of the best extra-base hitting teams in the Sun Belt this season as it enters Friday with top-five marks in doubles (T-fourth), homers (fourth), slugging percentage (fifth) and RBIs (fifth). Head coach
Whitney Jones came to the High Country with a hitting pedigree as across stints at UCF and Ohio State the last three years, her teams posted top-five conference marks in homers-per-game, triples-per-game and slugging percentage.
Entering play against ULM on Friday, App State carries top-10 program marks in slugging percentage (.461), home runs (37), triples (7) and on-base percentage (.370). As of Friday, the 2025 App State team currently holds the top spot in program history in two different categories (slugging percentage and on-base percentage). App State's .467 team slugging percentage is currently 33 points clear of the previous program record (.434).
Since the calendar flipped to Sun Belt play, the Mountaineers have found a different gear offensively. Entering Friday, they sit in the top five in the league in runs (third), home runs (third), RBIs (second), total bases (fourth), slugging percentage (third), walks (fourth) and on-base percentage (fourth) in league-only play. Four of the Mountaineers' seven 10-run games this season have come in Sun Belt play, which is the most 10-run games in league play since joining the Sun Belt in 2015.
Although App State boasts a young team - 58 percent are underclassmen - the young core of freshmen and sophomores have thrived so far this season as underclassmen have accounted for 75 percent of the team's 274 hits and 73 percent of its 196 RBIs. Entering Friday, underclassmen take up eight of the top 10 marks in hits and eight of the top 10 marks in RBIs.
Additionally, all but 11 of App State's 39 home runs this season have come from underclassmen (72 percent).
Leah Gore,
Grace Barrett,
Madison McIntyre, Hamby and Chumbley have each hit at least three homers this season, which places them all in the top 39 of the Sun Belt. Gore and McIntyre have both hit seven homers this season, which is tied for the 14th-most in the league entering Friday, while five of App State's top six home run hitters are underclassmen.
McClain is putting together one of the better offensive seasons in program history as she has hit 10 home runs, produced 40 RBIs and is slugging .713 for the season. If the season ended today, all three of those marks would be top-10 marks in program history. Entering Friday, McClain is in the top 15 in the SBC in batting average (T-14th), OPS (T-fifth), runs scored (second), hits (10th), home runs (T-fifth), RBIs (fourth), slugging percentage (ninth) and on-base percentage (seventh).
The Mountaineers head into this weekend's Sun Belt series with four hitters batting over. 310 in McClain, Hamby, Gore and Girk. All four players have been red-hot over the last seven games, but none may be hotter than Gore, who enters play against ULM with six multi-hit games in her last seven outings. The freshman entered play against James Madison on March 28 with a .266 batting average, but enters play against ULM with a .310 batting average, meaning she has raised her batting average by 44 points in her last seven games.
In the circle, Moshos continues to lead the charge for the Mountaineer staff as she sits 10th in the Sun Belt in ERA and fourth in the league in strikeouts. Moshos posted her team-leading second shutout of the season on Wednesday against Gardner-Webb and has tallied four complete games in her last seven appearances.
Series History
- App State vs. ULM
- Last Meeting: March 27, 2022
- Record: 10-9
- Trends:
- ULM's trip to Boone this weekend will mark its first trip to the High Country since 2021.
- App State has won five of the previous six meetings between the two teams, which includes a series sweep of the Warhawks in 2021.
Up Next
Following the conclusion of Sunday's series finale, App State will hit the road to Atlanta for a three-game Sun Belt set with the Georgia State Panthers next Thursday-Saturday. It will mark the second straight year that the Panthers will host the Mountaineers. Thursday's and Friday's games are scheduled to start at 6 p.m. and Saturday's contest will kick off at 1 p.m. All three games can be streamed on ESPN+.
