BOONE, N.C. – App State Baseball will play its final midweek home game of the season on Tuesday, as the team takes on ETSU at 6 p.m. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+.
It's Taco Tuesday at the ballpark, featuring the Taqueria La Monarca food truck.
SCOUTING THE MOUNTAINEERS
App State enters the contest 21-18 on the season and 11-7 in Sun Belt play following a series win over James Madison. App State has won each of its last four conference series, and five of its six overall. Friday against the Dukes,
Caleb Cross delivered his third consecutive complete-game, including back-to-back nine-inning efforts. He has won each of his last four starts. App State leads the Sun Belt in batting average, doubles, hits, scoring, sac flies and shutouts this season.
Tyler Lichtenberger paces App State at the plate, batting a league-leading .401 on the season, while
Juan Correa leads App State in the power department with 11 home runs and 43 RBIs.
Kameron Miller joins the duo as another Mountaineer who owns an OPS above 1.000.
SCOUTING THE BUCCANEERS
ETSU enters the matchup 27-11 on the season and 8-4 in SoCon play following a series win over Mercer. In an 11-0 win on Saturday, ETSU broke the program's single-game home run record, leaving the ballpark eight times. Jace Hyde was named the Southern Conference Pitcher of the Week, following seven scoreless innings of one-hit ball. The Bucs have showcased a prolific offense this season, ranking third nationally with 91 home runs and 20th in the nation batting .315. They have also tossed four shutouts. Cooper Torres leads the way for ETSU at the plate, batting .360 with 16 home runs and 48 RBIs. Landon Crumbley will make his third start of the season for the Bucs. He sports a 2-1 record and a 3.86 ERA.
SERIES HISTORY
App State and East Tennessee State are facing off for the 143
rd time in a series that dates back to 1955. The Bucs won the first matchup of the season 12-3 in Johnson City on Feb. 25.
UNTOUCHABLE
Redshirt senior
Caleb Cross has been lights out on the mound in his last four starts.In consecutive outings, Cross has thrown seven no-hit innings against Old Dominion, an eight-inning complete game against ULM, a nine-inning shutout at Marshall and a nine-inning complete game vs James Madison. His ERA is 0.82 over his last three outings, allowing just three earned runs in 33 innings. He has struck out 20 batters while allowing just 30 combined walks and hits over that span. Cross has lowered his ERA to 2.64 which ranks fifth in the Sun Belt. He also ranks among league leaders in innings pitched (2
nd – 61.1), wins (T-3
rd – 6) and opponent's batting average (T-9
th - .219).
Cross was named the Sun Belt Pitcher of the Week on April 15 following his complete game shutout against Marshall on April 11. Cross joins
Caleb Marks (March 8 vs. College of Charleston) as Mountaineer pitchers who have thrown a nine-inning, complete-game shutout this season. It marks the first time since Sam Agnew-Wieland threw two complete-game shutouts for App State in 2013 that the Mountaineers have achieved the feat twice in the same year. The duo joins Northwestern State's Trent Hillen and Dylan Marionneaux as the only pair of teammates in college baseball this season to have thrown nine-inning, complete-game shutouts. He is one of two pitchers in the nation with two nine-inning complete games and one of three pitchers with at least three complete games overall.
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 37 of 38 games played on the campaign, including hits in 32 of those contests. Lichtenberger is batting .401 on the season with ranks second in the Sun Belt. He also ranks among league leaders in hits (2
nd – 57), OBP (6
th - .476) and doubles (T-5
th – 12). On March 28 against Old Dominion, Lichtenberger tallied a career-high four hits, including his first collegiate home run. His .401 average ranks 36
th nationally and fourth among freshmen. Lichtenberger is batting .463 in Sun Belt play.
DOUBLE TROUBLE
Through 36 games this season, the App State offense has registered 89 doubles which leads the Sun Belt and ranks 19th nationally.
Braxton Church,
Tyler Lichtenberger 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. On Friday against James Madison he earned the win by going 6.1 innings in relief and allowing just two earned runs, while striking out seven. The graduate student has allowed two earned run or fewer in 14 of his 18 outings this season. He boasts a 3.47 ERA and has struck out 39 batters in 46.2 innings of work this season, with opponents hitting just .218 against him. He has also allowed just one home run this season.
KAM GOES BAM
App State sophomore
Kameron Miller has been on a tear at the plate, reaching base safely in 26 consecutive games. Miller has belted nine home runs this season including a 471-foot missile against Western Carolina on April 8, the longest measured for an App State player in the TrackMan Era (since 2019). Miller ranks among Sun Belt leaders in average (3
rd - .362), OPS (3
rd – 1.165), walks (4
th – 31), on-base (5
th – .510), RBIs (T-5
th – 40), slugging (7
th - .655), home runs (T-8
th – 9) and batting average (9
th – .346). 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 31 times this season and 27 times in his last 22 games played, including a career-high four walks against Gardner-Webb on Feb. 28.
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 31 games, including a trio of two-homer games – against Queens, UMass Lowell and Wake Forest. Correa ranks among conference leaders in home runs (T-6
th – 11), RBIs (3rd – 43), and slugging (8
th – .636). 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 28 of 33 games this season (in which he has recorded an official at-bat) including a ten-game hitting streak.
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 39 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 29 walks, contributing to a .941 OPS on the season. He also paces the Mountaineers' running game, swiping seven bags in eight tries.
FOR THE GREATER GOOD
App State has hit 27 sacrifice flies this season which leads the Sun Belt and ranks 6th in the country. Eleven different players have hit at least one sac fly, with
Braxton Church's seven 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 tied for 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 20.1 innings good for a 12.8 K/9 rate. Fisher's 18 appearances this season are tied for the team lead and tied for fifth-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 37 games played this season Zamora is batting .331 with 29 RBIs and 31 runs scored. Zamora has struck out just 14 times in 177 plate appearances this season, making him the foruth-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 22 times through 39 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 five 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 continue its seven-game homestand by hosting Southern Miss at Smith Stadium, Friday through Sunday. The Mountaineers are just a game back of the Golden Eagles in the Sun Belt standings. The two teams have never met in the regular season but have faced off in the Sun Belt Tournament semifinals each of the last two seasons.
