BOONE, N.C. – App State Baseball rounds out the regular season with a three-game series against Georgia State Thursday through Saturday at Smith Stadium. App State's magic number is two to clinch a spot in next week's Sun Belt Tournament in Montgomery, Ala. Thursday and Friday's contests are set to get underway at 6 p.m. with Saturday's season finale set for 1 p.m.
Friday night is Youth Day and all kids age 12 and under receive free admission. The Mountaineers will host senior day ahead of Saturday's contest. The team will honor
Olivia Lacy,
Cody Little,
Collin Welch,
Bradley Wilson,
Caleb Cross and
Braxton Church.
SCOUTING THE MOUNTAINEERS
App State enters the series 22-28 on the season and 12-15 in Sun Belt play after winning one of three at South Alabama last weekend. After coming up just short in extra innings in game two of Saturday's doubleheader, the team rebounded for a dominant 12-2 win on Sunday, highlighted by two home runs and a career-high eight RBIs from
Juan Correa.
Tyler Lichtenberger paces the Mountaineers with a .330 average on the season, while Correa leads the way in the power department with 16 home runs and 58 RBIs on the campaign. On the mound,
Caleb Cross leads the Mountaineers with a 6-4 record and a 4.16 ERA as well as three complete games on the season.
Bradley Wilson also boasts a 4.50 ERA in a team-best 23 appearances out of the bullpen.
SCOUTING THE PANTHERS
Georgia State enters play losers of 11 consecutive games and sitting at 24-29 overall and 9-18 in Sun Belt play. The Panthers would need to sweep the series and have South Alabama lose at least one game to qualify for the Sun Belt Tournament. The Panthers are led at the plate by Kaleb Freeman, who leads the nation in doubles with 26 and has walked a program-record 58 times this season. He is one of three Panthers who have hit at least 15 home runs this season, joining Colin Hynek and Jesse Donohoe. As a team the Panthers have clubbed 82 home runs and 103 doubles.
SERIES HISTORY
App State and Georgia State have faced off 32 times in program history in a series that dates back to 1979. The Panthers hold a narrow 17-15 advantage, but the Mountaineers swept the three-game series last season in Atlanta.
JUAN GONE
App State first baseman
Juan Correa hit two home runs on Sunday to give him 16 on the season, moving him into a tie for fifth place on the Mountaineers' single-season home run list. Correa hit a grand slam, a two-run shot and added a two-run single against South Alabama giving him a career-high eight RBIs, the most among an App State player in the Sun Belt era. Correa ranks among league leaders in RBIs (2
nd – 58), home runs (4
th – 16) and slugging (4
th - .632). 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 four times this season (against Queens, UMass Lowell, Wake Forest and South Alabama). Correa has hit safely in 34 of 43 games this season (in which he has recorded an official at-bat) including a ten-game hitting streak during that span.
IT'S MILLER TIME
App State sophomore
Kameron Miller has been outstanding this season reaching base safely in 34 of his last 37 games, including an 11-game hitting streak during that span. Miller has belted 11 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 walks (T-5
th – 38), on-base (6
th - .473), RBIs (T-6
th – 47) and OPS (7
th – 1.055). Moreover, in Sun Belt play the Harrisburg, N.C. native is batting .379 (2
nd) and has driven in 32 runs (3
rd) in 27 games against conference foes. Miller has transformed himself into a complete hitter in 2025, working a team-leading 38 times this season after not walking once as a freshman.
DOUBLE TROUBLE
Through 50 games this season, the App State offense has registered 101 doubles which ranks the Sun Belt and ranks 71
st nationally.
Braxton Church leads the way with 14 doubles on the season, while
Tyler Figueroa (13) and
Tyler Lichtenberger (12) have also reached double figures. The record for doubles in a season is 168, set in 2007. Individually, David Rubinstein owns the program record with 30 doubles in 2007.
FOR THE GREATER GOOD
App State has hit 29 sacrifice flies this season which ranks second in the Sun Belt and 30th 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.
CROSS EM UP
Redshirt senior
Caleb Cross has been exceptional as the Friday night starter for the Mountaineers this season. Cross is tied for fourth in the Sun Belt with six wins on the season and his 71.1 innings pitched are sixth most this year. Cross went through an extraordinary four-start stretch from March 28-April 18 where he went 4-0 with a 0.82 ERA (3 ER/33IP). Over that stretch, Cross threw 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.
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.
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 each of his first 34 games played and 43 of 49 games overall. The freshman has hit safely in 37 of those contests, including 22 multi-hit efforts. Lichtenberger ranks among Sun Belt leaders in batting (11
th - .330) and hits (T-6
th – 62).
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 five 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 a season-high seven. The graduate student has allowed two earned run or fewer in 15 of his 23 outings this season. He boasts a 4.50 ERA and has struck out 49 batters in 62.0 innings of work this season. He has also allowed just one home run.
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 45 games played this season Zamora is batting .321 with 34 RBIs and 40 runs scored. 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.
SOUTHPAW SUCCESS
Reyn Watson has become an impactful piece of the Mountaineers bullpen during the back-half of the season. The transfer from Florida Southwestern State has given up just two earned runs across his last six outings (8.0 IP) while striking out eight. On April 22 against ETSU, Watson retired all five batters faced, including three strikeouts.
Similarly,
Jake Beaty has been pivotal as a left-handed relief option. The junior worked 2.2 scoreless innings to earn the win at South Alabama on Sunday. Over his last eight appearances he has worked to a 4.50 ERA (7 ER/14 IP) and struck out nine batters during that span.
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 4.8. App State has walked four batters or fewer 27 times through 50 games, including two walk-free games.
LEATHERMEN
In Sun Belt play this season, App State ranks second in the league defensively, committing just 23 errors in 27 conference games for a fielding percentage of .977. App State also leads the league in throwing out opposing base stealers, cutting down 18 runners in 41 attempts (43%).
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 nine Sun Belt schools rank in the top-150 nationally in RPI. Last year the league finished with nine teams in the top-100, with four making the NCAA Tournament. The Sun Belt has sent four teams to NCAA Baseball Regionals in each of the past three seasons—including four to regional finals in 2024.
UP NEXT
If App State can lock up a series win (or maintain their lead over South Alabama in the standings), they will clinch a spot in the Sun Belt Tournament beginning Tuesday at Riverwalk Stadium in Montgomery, Ala. If the Mountaineers can sweep the Panthers and Marshall takes two of three from Georgia Southern, Texas State does not sweep James Madison and Arkansas State does not sweep Louisiana the Mountaineers would vault themselves into a top six seed and advance to play in the double-elimination bracket beginning on Wednesday.
