BOONE, N.C. – Winners of four of its first five conference series, App State baseball heads to Durham to take on the Duke Blue Devils in non-conference play on Tuesday. First pitch from Jack Coombs Field is set for 6 p.m. and the game will be broadcast on the ACC Network Extra.
SCOUTING THE MOUNTAINEERS
App State enters the contest 19-16 on the season and 9-6 in Sun Belt play following a series win over Marshall in Huntington, W.Va. over the weekend.
Caleb Cross delivered a complete game shutout on Friday night and the offense rallied for an extra-inning win to take the rubber match on Sunday. App State leads the Sun Belt in batting average, hits, runs-per-game, sacrifice flies and shutouts this season.
Tyler Lichtenberger paces App State at the plate, batting a league-leading .424 on the season, while
Juan Correa leads App State in the power department with 11 home runs and 38 RBIs.
Kameron Miller joins the duo as another Mountaineer who owns an OPS above 1.000.
Cal Clark will make his second start of the season in Durham on Tuesday. App State's bullpen is well rested after the Mountaineers needed to use just four relievers in their series against Marshall.
SCOUTING THE BLUE DEVILS
The Blue Devils enter Tuesday's contest with a record of 24-14 and 9-9 in ACC play. Duke dropped its weekend series against Miami in Coral Gables over the weekend, despite a 13-3 win in the opener. Ben Miller leads Duke at the plate, batting .335 on the season with 15 home runs and 45 RBIs in 38 games. Left-hander Kyle Johnson will make his sixth start of the season on Tuesday. He was named to the preseason Golden Spikes Watch List this season, following a Freshman All-American campaign a season ago. Duke was picked fifth in the ACC preseason poll.
SERIES HISTORY
Duke leads the all-time series 8-3 and the Blue Devils have won each of the last three meetings. App State last beat Duke in 2012, when Chris Pollard was the Mountaineers' skipper, on the way to App State's Charlottesville Regional appearance that season. App State is looking for its first win over an ACC program since Feb. 26, 2020, when the Mountaineers topped No. 24 Wake Forest in Winston-Salem.
COACHING CONNECTION
Duke Head Coach Chris Pollard has significant ties to the App State program. Pollard was the Head Coach of the Mountaineers from 2005 through 2012, culminating with a school-record 41 wins in his final campaign, leading the Mountaineers to a SoCon Championship and the final round of the Charlottesville regional with postseason wins over Virginia and Oklahoma. Not only did Pollard lead the Mountaineers, but he was also App State Head Coach
Kermit Smith's college head coach at Pfeiffer University for his senior season in 2000.
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 34 games played on the campaign, including hits in 30 of those contests. Lichtenberger is batting .424 on the season with leads the Sun Belt, while he also ranks among league leaders in hits (T-2
nd – 53), OBP (5
th - .493), OPS (6
th – 1.080), doubles (T-10
th – 11), and sac flies (T-10
th – 3). On March 28 against Old Dominion, Lichtenberger tallied a career-high four hits, including his first collegiate home run. His .424 average ranks 18
th nationally and second among freshmen. Lichtenberger is batting .463 in Sun Belt play.
UNTOUCHABLE
Redshirt senior
Caleb Cross has been lights out on the mound in his last three starts. In consecutive outings, Cross has thrown seven no-hit innings, an eight-inning complete game and a nine-inning shutout, winning all three of those starts. His ERA is 0.75 over his last three outings, allowing just two earned runs in 24 innings. He has struck out 14 batters while allowing just 20 combined walks and hits over that span. Cross has lowered his ERA to 2.92 which ranks seventh in the Sun Belt, while his five victories this season are tied for fourth in the league.
DOUBLE TROUBLE
Through 35 games this season, the App State offense has registered 79 doubles which is second in the Sun Belt and ranks 26th nationally.
Braxton Church and
Tyler Figueroa lead the charge with a dozen double 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 March 29 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 13 of his 17 outings this season. He boasts a 3.57 ERA and has struck out 32 strikeouts in 40.1 innings of work this season, with opponents hitting just .213 against him.
JUAN GONE
App State first baseman
Juan Correa hit his 11th home run of the season in a victory ULM on April 4. The senior has now slugged 11 home runs through his first 30 games, including a trio of two-homer games – against Queens, UMass Lowell and Wake Forest – to rank 56
th nationally in home runs, despite missing five games due to injury. Correa also ranks among conference leaders in home runs RBIs (T-2
nd – 38), (T-4
th – 11) and slugging (6
rd – .661). 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 25 of 29 games this season (in which he has recorded an official at-bat) including a ten-game hitting streak.
KAM GOES BAM
App State sophomore
Kameron Miller has been on a tear at the plate, reaching base safely in 22 consecutive games. Miller has belted nine home runs this season including a 471-foot tank against Western Carolina on Tuesday, the longest measured for an App State player in the TrackMan Era (since 2019). Miller ranks among Sun Belt leaders in OPS (4
th – 1.130), on-base (6
th – .489), walks (T-6
th – 28), RBIs (T-6
th – 36), slugging (8
th - .641), home runs (T-8
th – 9) and batting average (T-10
th – .340). After not working a single walk in 48 at-bats last season,
Kameron Miller has transformed himself into a very patient hitter in 2025, working a team-leading 28 times this season and 24 times in his last 18 games played, including a career-high four walks against Gardner-Webb on Feb. 28.
FANTASTIC FIG
Sophomore
Tyler Figueroa has been a valuable addition, joining the Mountaineers this season as a transfer from Siena. Was named the Sun Belt Player of the Week on April 8 after hitting three home runs and driving in 10 runs in four games the previous week against Western Carolina and ULM. Figueroa is the only Mountaineer to start all 34 games this season, appearing in games at second base, third base, left field and center field. Figueroa recorded a 19-game on-base streak from March 7 to April 6. He ranks second on the team with 24 walks, contributing to a .929 OPS on the season. He also paces the Mountaineers' running game, swiping six bags in seven tries.
FOR THE GREATER GOOD
App State has hit 25 sacrifice flies this season which leads the Sun Belt and ranks 7th in the country. Eleven different players have hit at least one sac fly, with
Braxton Church's six sac flies leading the team. For comparison, App State finished 2024 with 25 sacrifice flies.
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 five saves this season rank fifth in the Sun Belt and one away from the top-10 in App State single-season history. He has struck out 29 batters in 19.1 innings good for a 13.5 K/9 rate. Fisher's 17 appearances this season are tied for the team lead and tied for third-most in the conference.
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 March 25 to force extra-innings against High Point. Through 30 games played this season Zamora is batting .343 with 28 RBIs and 29 runs scored. Zamora has struck out just 14 times in 157 plate appearances this season, making him the sixth-toughest player to strike out in the Sun Belt. He also made No. 2 on SportsCenter's Top-10 countdown for his diving catch in foul territory on which he covered 109 feet in the April 11 win over Marshall.
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 4.5. App State has walked four batters or fewer 20 times through 35 games, including two walk-free games.
SUPERB SUN BELT
The Sun Belt continues to be one of the top conferences in college baseball. Troy, Coastal Carolina and Southern Miss are all ranked in this week's D1Baseball top-25, while six Sun Belt schools rank in the top-100 nationally in RPI. Last year the league finished with nine teams in the top-100, with four making the NCAA Tournament.
UP NEXT
App State will host James Madison in a three-game series Thursday through Saturday at Smith Stadium. First pitch on Thursday and Friday is set for 6 p.m. with Saturday's contest slated for 1 p.m. All three games will be broadcast on ESPN+.
