ATLANTA — App State Baseball had two pitchers selected Monday in the 2025 MLB Draft, as the Seattle Mariners picked
Jackson Steensma in the ninth round and the St. Louis Cardinals chose
Liam Best in the 19th round.
Steensma and Best became the 48th and 49th draft picks from App State, increasing the total to eight since head coach
Kermit Smith arrived before the 2017 season. The Mountaineers have had at least one pitcher taken in five of the nine drafts during that time.
With Steensma going 272nd overall and Best being taken with the 570th pick, App State had two players selected in the top 20 rounds for the first time since 2012, when pitcher Nathan Hyatt went in the 13th round and catcher Tyler Tewell was drafted in the 14th round. The last time the Mountaineers had a pick in the top 10 rounds and then another top-20-round pick was 1985.
The 2013 draft was the last time two pitchers from App State had been selected in the same year: Rob Marcell and Sam Agnew-Wieland. Seattle selected an App State alum for the second straight year, following its 2024 pick of
Austin St. Laurent, while Cardinals pitching coach Dusty Blake is an App State alum.
One of the top pitchers in the Sun Belt Conference in 2024, Steensma led the Mountaineers on the mound by going 6-2 with a 4.03 ERA. He finished the season ranked sixth in the league in opponent's batting average (.235), seventh in strikeouts (74), fifth in strikeouts looking (24) and ninth in ERA (4.03). Steensma used a medical redshirt in 2025 after undergoing Tommy John surgery.
Steensma's 2024 campaign was highlighted by a career-high 10 strikeouts against Troy during an outing in which he allowed just one run in six innings. He followed that up by tossing a career-high 6.1 innings in a victory over Arkansas State. The outings were part of a month-long stretch in which he struck out 26 while allowing just one walk.
The Byron Center, Mich., native joined the Mountaineers as a freshman in 2023, serving as the App State closer his first season. He posted a 3-1 record with a 4.28 ERA and recorded seven saves, a total that tied him for eighth-most in a single season in program history. His final save of the season came against No. 16 Southern Miss in the Sun Belt semifinals to stave off elimination.
Best, equipped with a high-90s fastball, bounced back from injury to impress for the Mountaineers in 2025. He posted a 2-5 record, a pair of saves and a 5.36 ERA, striking out 50 batters in 40.1 innings of work. After beginning the season as a high-leverage reliever, Best worked his way into the starting rotation across the final month of the season and tossed a career-high 4.2 innings, striking out six, during a start in the Sun Belt Tournament against Texas State.
Across his final five appearances of the season, Best fanned 26 batters in 16.2 innings for a strikeout rate of 14.0 batters per nine innings. Other season highlights included striking out four batters, including the side in the 10th inning, across 3.0 innings in an extra-inning win over Texas State on March 15. Best also struck out a career-high six batters in a start against No. 22 Southern Miss on April 26.
The Sterling, Va., native graduated from Potomac Falls High School, where he was twice recognized on Perfect Game Preseason All-American lists. Best began his collegiate career at George Washington in 2022 before transferring to the State College of Florida, where he competed in 2023 and 2024.
