HICKORY, N.C. — App State Baseball completed a season-opening series sweep Saturday, taking both games of a doubleheader against Canisius by scores of 13-3 (in seven innings) and 8-5 at L.P. Frans Stadium.
The Mountaineers, who also started 3-0 as recently as 2023, outscored the Golden Griffins by a 26-10 count over the three games. App State is back in action Tuesday against Duke in Durham.
Five-run outbursts in the third and sixth innings of Saturday's opener, coupled with a two-run bottom of the seventh, enabled that game to end early via the 10-run rule. App State trailed 5-2 in the series finale before tying the game in the bottom of the third inning and scoring one run apiece in three of its last four at-bats.
Riley Luft's one-out homer in the fifth broke a 5-all tie.
Nine App State pitchers combined for 23 strikeouts and six earned runs allowed during the doubleheader sweep.
Winning pitcher
Gage Peterson started Saturday's opener and didn't allow an earned run through four innings while recording eight strikeouts.
Conner Barozzino and
Logan Tibbett (who recorded the final four outs without allowing a run) finished that game on the mound.
Grant Gardner,
Reyn Watson,
JJ Garcia (four strikeouts in two perfect innings),
Jake Beaty,
Max Tramontana and
Jordan Fisher (save with two strikeouts in a scoreless ninth) pitched in the finale.
GAME 1 RECAP
Canisius took a 1-0 lead in the top of the third, but App State seized control with five runs in the bottom half of that frame.
Nico Soul had an RBI double,
Kameron Miller delivered an RBI single and Luft drew a bases-loaded walk before
Steven Smith drilled a two-run double with the bases loaded to score Miller and
Drew DuPont.
With App State ahead 6-3 entering the bottom of the sixth, Miller broke the game open with a three-run double before he scored on a DuPont triple.
Miller went 3-for-4 with five RBIs and three runs scored, while Smith finished with three RBIs. Soul, DuPont,
Joseph Zamora,
Colton Denton and
Tank Yaghoubi scored two runs apiece.
GAME 2 RECAP
With App State behind 5-2 going to the bottom of the third,
Ethan Puig reached on a one-out error before Zamora, Miller and DuPont drew three consecutive walks to prompt a pitching change in a 5-3 game.
Zamora scored on a wild pitch, and Luft was hit by a pitch to reload the bases before
Jalen Seward tied the game with another walk.
Luft's homer to left produced a 6-5 lead in the fifth, and Smith's leadoff double in the sixth led to a run following an error in the next at-bat. DuPont's two-out single scored Zamora in the eighth, and Fisher retired the final three batters after allowing a leadoff double in the ninth.
DuPont finished 2-for-4 with two RBIs and one walk. Smith went 2-for-2 at the plate, and Zamora scored two runs.
The 2026 season is presented by Chick-fil-A.
