BOONE, N.C. – App State Baseball has won four consecutive games and nine of its last 11, heading into a three-game Sun Belt series with Georgia Southern at Smith Stadium. Friday is country night, featuring a boot koozie giveaway with first pitch set for 6 p.m. Black Saturday is set for 3 p.m. with a rally towel giveaway. Heroes Day is set for Sunday, with first pitch set for 1 p.m. in the finale. All three games will be broadcast on ESPN+.
SCOUTING THE MOUNTAINEERS
App State (23-16, 10-8) is coming off a midweek victory over ETSU to complete a home-and-home sweep of the Buccaneers. The App State bullpen delivered seven scoreless innings, while
Kameron Miller drove in two of the three runs, including a towering 438-foot home run in the sixth inning. The junior has homered in three consecutive games. The Mountaineers now lead the Sun Belt with a .316 batting average, which also ranks 13th nationally.
Charlie Evans (.393) and
Steven Smith (.392) rank second and third respectively in the Sun Belt in batting average. App State is scoring 8.6 runs per game which leads the Sun Belt and ranks 20
th nationally. On the mound,
Gage Peterson and
Nick DiRito both rank among Sun Belt leaders in strikeouts. DiRito earned the win on Friday with eight strikeouts in eight scoreless innings and was subsequently named the Sun Belt Pitcher of the Week on Tuesday.
SCOUTING THE EAGLES
Georgia Southern (12-28, 5-13) has lost seven consecutive games, following a midweek setback against The Citadel on Wednesday. The Eagles lost their first eight games of the season but did earn a notable 6-1 victory over No. 11 Clemson on March 10. Georgia Southern is led by 27th-year head coach Rodney Hennon who has led the team to four 40-win seasons, including in 2022 when the Eagles hosted a NCAA Regional. James McCoy leads the offense with a .367 average, 16 doubles, seven home runs and 33 RBIs in 40 starts. Pitching has been a struggle this year for an Eagles team that enters the weekend with an 8.60 ERA and has allowed 58 home runs in 40 games.
SERIES HISTORY
The two longtime rivals in both the SoCon and the Sun Belt have played 109 times in a series that dates back to 1967, with the Eagles holding an 83-26 lead all-time. Georgia Southern has won five in a row in the head-to-head series, including a three-game sweep last season in Statesboro.
Kermit Smith notably earned his 600
th victory against the Eagles on April 14, 2023, in Statesboro. App State is looking for its first series win over the Eagles since 2013.
WHERE THEY STAND
App State enters the weekend 10-8 on the season, tied with Troy and South Alabama for third place in the Sun Belt standings. With four series remaining in the regular season, the Sun Belt standings are incredibly tight, with second place and 11
th place separated by just three wins. The top 10 teams qualify for the Sun Belt tournament, with the top six receiving a bye into the double-elimination portion of the bracket.
APRIL SHOWERS FLOWERS
App State has excelled in the month of April, going 9-3 in the month, including a pair of four-game winning streaks (one active). App State last win streak longer than four games was a six-game winning streak from Feb. 18-27, 2024. In the month of April, App State is slashing .367/.470/.557 while pitching to a 5.55 ERA and holding opponents to a .254 batting average. They have outscored their opponents 123-83 this month, including last weekend when they outscored James Madison 43-20 in a road sweep.
FOR THE GREATER GOOD
App State ranks second in the nation with 32 sacrifice flies this season, accounting for 10% of the team's scoring this year. App State has already eclipsed last year's total when the team finished the year with 29 sac flies. App State has also been much more small-ball oriented this year, registering 27 sacrifice bunts, more than double their 11 sacrifices from a year ago.
IN PLAY, RUN(S)
App State leads the Sun Belt in runs scored this season with 335, and its 8.6 runs per game scoring average ranks 20
thnationally. A big reason behind the success has been the Mountaineers' ability to put the ball in play. App State ranks last in the Sun Belt in strikeouts (257) and first in hits (428). App State has also drawn 191 walks, the second-most in the league, resulting in a league-best .422 on-base percentage.
FLAMIN' HOT DIRITO
Redshirt-junior
Nick DiRito was named the Sun Belt pitcher of the week on Tuesday. DiRito enjoyed his best outing of the season against James Madison on Friday, matching a personal-best eight strikeouts in a career-high eight scoreless outings to earn the win. DiRito has struck out 58 batters while walking just 14 in 53.0 innings this season. His 4.14 strikeout-to-walk ratio ranks 9
th in the Sun Belt. DiRito struck out 40 batters in 45.2 innings last season for UMass Lowell, including five strikeouts in three innings against App State when he faced the Mountaineers in Hickory last February. After early-season dominance out of the bullpen,
Nick DiRito was moved into the weekend rotation, where he has started each of the last seven weekends.
TALK TO CHUCK
Outfielder
Charlie Evans saw his 22-game hitting streak (.442) come to a close with an 0-for-3 performance on Tuesday. The senior recorded the fifth-longest hitting streak in program history, hitting safely in every game from March 10 through April 19 and raising his average from .250 to .404 during that span. Evans hit two home runs during the Mountaineers' 10-0 win over James Madison last Friday, marking his first home runs of the season and his second career multi-home game, with the first coming against App State in 2024 when he was a member of Winthrop. Evans hit two triples in April 11 game against ULM, becoming the first Mountaineer to triple twice in a contest since Isaac Harrow in 2009. His second triple marked his 100
th collegiate hit. Evans tripled again a day later and finished a home run shy of the cycle in the series finale. He ranks among Sun Belt leaders in average (.393 – 2nd), triples (3 – T3rd) and OPS (1.026 – 10
th). Evans is an elite center fielder, ranking second at his position and 14
th in the country with 10.48 defensive runs saved this season.
IT'S MILLER TIME
After missing a month of the season due to injury, preseason All-Sun Belt selection
Kameron Miller has found his groove. The junior has homered in three consecutive games, has driven in a pair of runs in four straight, and has hit safely in each of the last five contests. After going just 1-for-12 in his return to the lineup against Southern Miss in the final weekend of March, Miller is batting .308 in the month of April. His 438-foot home run on Tuesday marked the 20
th of his App State career.
2-WAY STANDOUT
Steven Smith has impressed for the Mountaineers this season – both at the plate and on the mound. On April 7, the transfer from Division II Emory and Henry belted the first pitch of game against UNC Asheville over the left field fence for what began a career night at the plate. Smith finished with four hits (including a second home run and a double) and scored five runs. He also pitched a scoreless inning and earned D1Baseball's Mid Major Performance of the Day. Smith ranks among league leaders in AVG (.392 – 2nd), hits (56 – T-5th), OPS (1.073 - 7th), SLG (.615 – 8th), doubles (14 - 9th) and RBIs (38 – 10th). He has hit safely in 19 of his last 21 games, hitting .418 during that span. The two-way player has also recorded five scoreless outings in six appearances on the mound. He is the first two-way player for the Mountaineers since Andrew Terrell and Phillip Cole pitched and hit in 2021.
JAKE RAKES
Jake Mummau had a career day at the plate on March 31 for App State. The senior infielder went a perfect 4-for-4, including two doubles, drove in a pair of runs and scored three times in the Mountaineers 17-7 win over UNC Asheville. Mummau followed it up with a pair of three-hit efforts against Marshall in the opening weekend of April, to finish his week 10-for-15 with five RBIs. He has now hit safely in 13 of his last 15 games, batting .407 during that stretch and has hit a home run in each of the last two weekends.
WHAT A RELIEF
Redshirt senior
Jordan Fisher has been dialed in out of the bullpen of late, recording five straight outings without conceding an earned run, totaling 9.1 innings of work. He earned his first victory of the season on April 3 against Marshall and recorded his eighth career save on Sunday at JMU to move into a tie for ninth on the all-time saves list. He has lowered his ERA to 3.29 on the season.
SUPERB SUN BELT
The Sun Belt continues to be one of the top conferences in college baseball, and ranks fifth in the nation in conference RPI, boasting six top-60 teams and nine top-110 teams. Coastal Carolina was the College World Series runner-up a season ago, falling to LSU, while Southern Miss joined the Chanticleers in hosting a regional in 2025. The league sent four teams to regionals in 2022 through 2024 and has done so six times since 2000. Coastal Carolina is ranked ninth in this week's top 25 poll, with Southern Miss also ranked 18th.
UP NEXT
App State will hit the road next week to play Wake Forest in Shelby, N.C. on Tuesday before heading to Troy for a critical Sun Belt matchup against the Trojans. App State and Troy enter the weekend in a three-way tie with South Alabama for third place in the Sun Belt standings.
