BOONE, N.C. – App State Baseball will play its final midweek game of the season Tuesday, when the team travels to Shelby, N.C. to face off with Wake Forest to round out the season series with the Demon Deacons. The contest will be played at the historic Keeter Stadium, home of the American Legion World Series.
SCOUTING THE MOUNTAINEERS
App State enters the matchup 21-22 on the season and 11-10 in Sun Belt play, looking to snap a five-game losing skid. Most recently, the Mountaineers were swept by Southern Miss in a weekend series. The Mountaineers remain the highest scoring team in the Sun Belt at 7.6 runs-per-game, while also leading the league in doubles and sac flies.
Tyler Lichtenberger paces the Mountaineers with a .371 average, while
Juan Correa leads the way with 13 home runs and 48 RBIs on the campaign.
Bradley Wilson leads the App State bullpen with a 4.44 ERA in a team-high 20 appearances.
SCOUTING THE DEMON DEACONS
Wake Forest enters the contest 29-16 on the season and 12-12 in ACC play following a series win over Stanford last weekend. The Demon Deacons are led at the plate by Kade Lewis who is batting .440, a mark that ranks sixth nationally, while adding 11 home runs and 52 RBIs. The Deacs lead the ACC with 73 home runs this season. The Wake Forest pitching staff has worked to a 4.37 ERA this season, while holding opponents to a .218 batting mark.
SERIES HISTORY
App State and Wake Forest will meet on the diamond for the 67th time in program history. Wake Forest won the first matchup this season on 14-6 on March 5, scoring nine runs in the seventh inning. The Mountaineers most recently beat Wake Forest on Feb. 26, 2020, topping the No. 24 Demon Deacons 11-9 in Winston-Salem. Since then, Wake Forest has won the last seven games in the head-to-head series.
DOUBLE TROUBLE
Through 43 games this season, the App State offense has registered 90 doubles which leads the Sun Belt and ranks 43rd nationally.
Tyler Figueroa leads the way with 13 doubles on the season, while
Braxton Church and
Tyler Lichtenberger have each notched a dozen two-baggers. The record for doubles in a season is 168, set in 2007. Individually, David Rubinstein owns the program record with 30 doubles in 2007.
KAM GOES BAM
App State sophomore
Kameron Miller has been on a tear at the plate, reaching base safely in 28 of his last 30 games, including an 11-game hitting streak during that span. Miller has belted 10 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 OPS (5
th – 1.110), on-base (6
th - .482), RBIs (T-6
th – 43), walks (T-6
th – 31), average (8
th - .341), slugging (10
th - .628) and home runs (T-9
th – 10). Miller has transformed himself into a complete hitter in 2025, working a team-leading 31 times this season after not walking once as a freshman.
JUAN GONE
App State first baseman
Juan Correa hit his 13th home run of the season on Saturday against Southern Miss to move into a tie for tenth most in a single season in program history. Correa ranks among league leaders in RBIs (3
rd – 48), home runs (6
th – 13), slugging (7
th - .627) and OPS (10
th – .996). 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, something he has done three times this season (against Queens, UMass Lowell and Wake Forest). Correa has hit safely in 31 of 37 games this season (in which he has recorded an official at-bat) including a ten-game hitting streak during that span.
FOR THE GREATER GOOD
App State has hit 28 sacrifice flies this season which leads the Sun Belt and ranks 9th 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.
LICHTENBERGER LEADS THE WAY
Freshman shortstop
Tyler Lichtenberger was named to the Brooks Wallace Award Watch List on April 18, a year-end honor presented to the top shortstop in college baseball. He joins Ryne Farber (TXST) as the only Sun Belt players to be named to the Watch List and he is the first Mountaineer to make the coveted list since Will Callaway in 2013.
Lichtenberger was inserted into the starting lineup the second game of the season and hasn't looked back, reaching base safely in 40 of 42 games played on the campaign, including hits in 33 of those contests. Lichtenberger ranks among Sun Belt leaders in batting (3
rd - .371) and hits (2
nd – 59).
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. Wilson has thrown at least five innings in relief in four different outings this season. On April 17 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 20 outings this season. He boasts a 4.44 ERA and has struck out 40 batters in 50.2 innings of work this season, with opponents hitting just .245 against him. He has also allowed just one home run 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 March 25 to force extra-innings against High Point. Through 41 games played this season Zamora is batting .325 with 31 RBIs and 33 runs scored. Zamora has struck out just 17 times in 195 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 4.6. App State has walked four batters or fewer 24 times through 43 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 will continue its road trip in Conway, S.C. where the team will take on No. 19 Coastal Carolina in a three-game series Friday through Sunday. The Mountaineers upcoming seven-game road trip is their longest stretch of true road games this season.
