BOONE, N.C. – App State Baseball opens the 2026 season with a three-game series against the Canisius Golden Griffins at L.P. Frans Stadium in Hickory, N.C. First pitch is set for 1 p.m. in all three games and the contests will be streamed at appstatesports.com.
SCOUTING THE MOUNTAINEERS
Having reached the Sun Belt tournament in five consecutive seasons, App State baseball looks to continue its success in 2026, having registered 30-win seasons in two of the past three years. App State returns 19 players from a season ago, while brining aboard 18 newcomers – four freshmen and 14 transfers.
Kameron Miller (DH) and
Joseph Zamora (2B) were both named to the All-Sun Belt preseason team. Last season the Mountaineers went 23-31 overall and 13-17 in Sun Belt play, despite dropping 13 of their final 15 regular season contests. The offense ranked third in the league in batting average a season ago, trailing only NCAA tournament teams Coastal Carolina and Southern Miss.
SCOUTING THE GOLDEN GRIFFINS
Located in Buffalo, N.Y., Canisius will make the trip to North Carolina as part of 16 consecutive road contests to begin the season. The Griffins are coming off a 14-31 campaign in 2025 that saw them go 10-19 in MAAC play. They opened last season at fellow Sun Belt member James Madison. The Dukes swept the series but all three games were decided by five runs or fewer. Thomas Zwirecki is the Griffins top returner on offense. The redshirt junior catcher/infielder hit .322 with 12 doubles and 32 RBIs a season ago. Canisius also returns top starting pitcher Felix Morin. Canisius is looking for its first 30-win season since 2018.
SERIES HISTORY
App State and Canisius have faced off in 12 previous meetings, all between 2006 and 2015. Most recently the teams faced off in Lexington, S.C. in 2015, with the Golden Griffins taking two of three games.
IT'S MILLER TIME
The conference's first team designated hitter last season,
Kameron Miller enters his junior campaign as one of the most complete hitters in the Sun Belt. Miller slashed .305/.461/.567 with seven doubles, 12 home runs and 50 RBIs in 47 starts for the Mountaineers. He reached base safely in 37 of his final 40 games of the season, which included an 11-game hitting streak during that span.
The Harrisburg, N.C., native finished the year ranked among the Sun Belt leaders in on-base percentage, OPS, walks and RBIs. After not drawing a single walk as a freshman, Miller developed a much more patient approach as a sophomore, drawing 41 walks on the season, including 27 free passes in 30 conference games, tied for the second-most in the league. Miller also set the program record for the longest home run in the TrackMan Era (since 2019) when he belted a 471-foot shot against Western Carolina on April 8.
SOME ZA DELIVERY
Graduate second baseman
Joseph Zamora has been a model of consistency in his first two seasons at App State. In 2025, the second baseman slashed .307/.397/.395 with 34 RBIs and 41 runs scored in 52 starts. The Miami, Fla., native had a flair for the dramatic in 2025. He blasted a grand slam as part of a seven-run fifth inning to help the Mountaineers overcome a six-run deficit in a win over UMass Lowell on Feb. 23, while also delivering a walk-off single in the 11th inning against Texas State on March 15 to help the Mountaineers sweep their opening series of Sun Belt play.
Zamora was also exceptional in the field, helping the Mountaineers turn 21 double plays and finishing the season with a fielding percentage of .969. Among his litany of web gems was a diving catch in foul territory at Marshall on April 11 that landed him the No. 2 spot on SportsCenter's Top 10 plays countdown.
NATIONAL RECOGNITION
Four App State Baseball players have garnered national recognition heading into the 2026 season.
Nico Soul was projected to be the No. 1 impact freshman in the Sun Belt,
Gage Peterson (31) and
Carter Stanford (48) were both projected as top 50 draft prospects within the conference, while
Tanner Nolan was ranked as the 153rd best starting pitcher across Division I baseball.
BOMBS AWAY
App State's improved offense the last several seasons has been tied to a big jump in power numbers at the plate. After hitting just 29 home runs in 2022, App Stat has hit at least 50 home runs in each of the past three seasons. This stretch has been highlighted by Banks Tolley setting the single-season program record with 26 home runs in 2024, while CJ Boyd set the App State career home run record with 35 – hitting 17 in 2023 and 18 in 2024.
YEAR HOME RUNS GAMES HR/GM
2025 53 54 0.98
2024 96 55 1.75
2023 67 55 1.23
2022 29 53 0.55
LEATHERMEN
Playing clean defense has been a staple of App State's success under head coach
Kermit Smith. Led by infield coach
Britt Johnson, App State has ranked among the top half of the Sun Belt in fielding percentage in four of the past five seasons, while six of the top 10 fielding percentage teams in program history have come during Smith's tenure. In conference play last season, the Mountaineers ranked second in the league in fielding percentage (.979) and posted 20 error-free games on the season overall, including seven straight to end the regular season.
APP STATE IN THE DRAFT
Following the 2025 season, App State pitchers
Jackson Steensma and
Liam Best were selected in the Major League Baseball first year player's draft. Steensma was taken by the Seattle Mariners in the 14
th round, while Best was nabbed by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 19
th round. In nine seasons under head coach
Kermit Smith, eight Mountaineers have been selected in the MLB Draft, including four in the last three years (Xander Hamilton – MIN, 2023, Austin St. Laurent – SEA, 2024).
NEW-LOOK COACHING STAFF
App State Baseball features two new additions to its coaching staff in 2026. The Mountaineers announced the hire of pitching coach
Heath Blackmon in June. A rising star in college baseball, Blackmon recently concluded a four-year stint as the Director of Player Development for East Carolina, where he helped guide the Pirates to four NCAA tournament appearances and helped develop 2024 All-American Trey Yesavage, who starred for the Blue Jays in the 2025 World Series.
Seth McLemore also returns to the staff following one season as the hitting coach and recruiting coordinator at Southern Illinois. McLemore helped lead the Mountaineers to back-to-back 30-win seasons in 2023 and 2024 when the team broke the season home run record each year. McLemore replaced
Ross Steadley who was hired as the catching coordinator for the Chicago White Sox. Steedley joined
Ricky Meinhold, who was hired as the Toronto Blue Jays pitching coordinator in 2024, as App State assistants to be hired by Major League Baseball organizations.
SUPERB SUN BELT
The Sun Belt continues to be one of the top conferences in college baseball. Coastal Carolina was the College World Series runner-up a season ago, falling to LSU. Southern Miss joined the Chanticleers in hosting a regional. The league sent four teams to regionals in 2022 through 2024 and has done so six times since 2000. Coastal Carolina (6
th) and Southern Miss (20
th) are both ranked in the D1Baseball preseason poll, while Troy is also receiving votes in two other publications.
UP NEXT
The Mountaineers will travel to Durham on Tuesday to face off with Duke at 4 p.m. The Blue Devils posted a 41-win season in 2025, winning the Athens Regional before being upset by Murray State in the Durham Super Regional. The Blue Devils are led by first year head coach Corey Muscara, who previously served as the pitching coach at Wake Forest. They were picked 13
th out of 17 teams in the ACC Preseason poll.
