BOONE, N.C. – App State Baseball will round out a home-and-home series with Western Carolina on Wednesday, as the Mountaineers host the Catamounts at Smith Stadium with first pitch set for 5 p.m. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+.
SCOUTING THE MOUNTAINEERS
App State enters the contest 16-15 on the season and 7-5 in Sun Belt play, just one win behind first place in the conference standings. The Mountaineers are coming off a series victory over ULM in which App State scored 42 runs in 24 innings at the plate in the three-game series, collecting a pair of run-rule victories. App State now lead Sun Belt in batting average, hits, doubles and runs-per-game.
Caleb Cross fired a complete game (eight innings) on the mound on Friday night, while eight different batters hit over .300 on the weekend.
Tyler Lichtenberger leads App State at the plate, batting a league-leading .432 on the season and .512 in Sun Belt play, while
Juan Correa paces App State in the power department with 11 home runs and 36 RBIs.
Bradley Wilson leads the team out of the bullpen with a 3.63 ERA across 16 outings.
SCOUTING CATAMOUNTS
Western Carolina enters Tuesday's matchup 16-15 on the season and 2-4 in SoCon play after sweeping a rain-shortened two-game series from Gardner-Webb last weekend. 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 six players batting over .300 this season, led by Hayden Friese, who leads the team with a .354 and a 1.006 OPS. Brandon Langley leads the pitching staff with a 1.00 ERA across 12 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 93-65-1, including a 14-10 victory in Cullowhee last Tuesday. App State battled back from an early 7-1 deficit, scoring five runs in the eighth inning, but were unable to complete the comeback.
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 30 games played on the campaign. Lichtenberger is batting .432 on the season with leads the Sun Belt, while he also ranks among league leaders in hits (1
st – 48), OBP (4
th - .504), OPS (4
th – 1.126), doubles (T-5
th – 11), runs scored (T-7
th – 31) and sac flies (T-10
th – 3). Lichtenberger is batting .512 in Sun Belt play. On March 28 against Old Dominion, Lichtenberger tallied a career-high four hits, including his first collegiate home run. His .432 average ranks 14
th nationally and first among freshmen.
UNTOUCHABLE
Following a hitless seven innings against Old Dominion on March 28,
Caleb Cross turned in another fantastic start against ULM on April 4. The redshirt senior threw his first career-complete game, allowing just two earned runs over eight innings while striking out eight. Across his last two outings Cross has combined to give up just two runs on eight hits and four walks, while striking out 10 in 15.0 Innings. He also recorded streaks of 10 consecutive hitless innings and 13 consecutive scoreless innings. The 7.0 hitless innings against ODU were the most by an App State pitcher in the Sun Belt era.
DOUBLE TROUBLE
Through 31 games this season, the App State offense has registered 74 doubles which leads the Sun Belt and ranks 13th nationally.
Braxton Church leads the way with a career-high 12 doubles this season, while
Tyler Lichtenberger and
Tyler Figueroa have added 11 and 10 doubles respectively. The record for doubles in a season is 168, set in 2007. Individually, David Rubinstein owns the program record with 30 doubles in 2007.
RACKIN' UP RUNS
App State's offense has put up some gaudy numbers this season, highlighted by a season-high 17 runs in a run-rule win over ULM on Sunday. This season the Mountaineers are averaging 8.5 runs-per-game, which leads the Sun Belt and ranks 37
th nationally. The Mountaineers have scored double-digit runs 14 times in 31 games.
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 16 outings this season. He boasts a 3.63 ERA and has struck out 28 strikeouts in 34.2 innings of work this season, with opponents hitting just .229 against him.
JUAN GONE
App State first baseman
Juan Correa hit his 11th home run of the season in a victory ULM on Friday. The senior has now slugged 11 home runs through his first 26 games, including a trio of two-homer games – against Queens, UMass Lowell and Wake Forest – to rank 34
th nationally in home runs, despite missing five games due to injury. Correa also ranks among conference leaders in home runs (1st – 11), slugging (4
th - .685), RBIs (3
rd – 36), and OPS (9
th – 1.067). 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 22 of 25 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 26 times this season and 22 times in his last 14 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 .624 on the season, with four doubles and seven home runs. Miller's 26 walks are tied for sixth-most in the Sun Belt.
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 Tuesday after hitting three home runs and driving in 10 runs in four games last week for App State. Figueroa is the only Mountaineer to start all 31 games this season, appearing in games at second base, third base, left field and center field. Figueroa has reached base safely in 19 consecutive games. He ranks second on the team with 22 walks, contributing to a .945 OPS on the season. He also paces the Mountaineers' running game, swiping six bags in seven tries.
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 35 31 1.13
2024 96 55 1.75
2023 67 55 1.23
2022 29 53 0.55
FOR THE GREATER GOOD
App State has hit 20 sacrifice flies this season which ranks second in the Sun Belt and ranks 21st in the country. Ten different players have hit at least one sac fly, with
Braxton Church's five 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 14 hits in 17 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 fifth in the Sun Belt and ranks 58
th nationally. He has struck out 24 batters in 16.1 innings good for a 13.2 K/9 rate. Fisher's 15 appearances this season are second on the team and fourth 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 26 games played this season Zamora is batting .345 with 25 RBIs and 28 runs scored. Zamora has struck out just 10 times in 119 at-bats this season, making him the third-toughest player to strike out in the Sun Belt.
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 4.7. App State has walked four batters or fewer 17 times through 31 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 return to the road this weekend as the team travels to Marshall for a three-game series against the Thundering Herd. First pitch Friday is set for 6 p.m. with Saturday's contest slated for 5 p.m. The series concludes on Sunday, with first pitch scheduled for 1 p.m. in the finale. All three games will be broadcast on ESPN+.
