BOONE, N.C. – Following a run rule victory over UNC Asheville on Tuesday, the App State baseball team returns to Jim & Bettie Smith Stadium for a three-game Sun Belt series against ULM. First pitch on Friday is set for 6 p.m. and it's faculty and staff appreciation day, featuring discounted tickets. Saturday will feature a golf towel giveaway in honor of The Master's, with first pitch slated for 3 p.m. The series concludes on Sunday at 1 p.m. with a rescheduled Easter Egg hunt set to follow the conclusion of the series finale. All three games will be broadcast on ESPN+.
SCOUTING THE MOUNTAINEERS
App State (17-14, 5-7) put up season-highs in runs (18), hits (18) and walks (15), while seven players tallied multi-hit efforts in a 18-5 victory over UNC Asheville on Tuesday to sweep the season series.
Steven Smith homered twice as part of a four-hit game and
Tommy Walker belted a grand slam to lead the offensive outburst. Smith leads the Mountaineers at the plate batting .393 with a team-high 13 doubles. He has hit safely in 13 of his last 14 games.
Charlie Evans has hit safely in 15 consecutive games, raising his average to .325 on the season. App State is led on the mound by
Gage Peterson who is undefeated this season and boasts a league-best 1.60 ERA.
SCOUTING THE WARHAWKS
ULM (19-15, 7-5) has impressed under first year head coach Ford Pemberton. Picked to finish last in the Sun Belt in the 2026 preseason poll, the Warhawks are tied for third in the standings at 7-5 through four weekends of league play. ULM leads the league with a .310 average this season, paced by Davis Mauzy who is batting .370 on the season. Dayne Wray and Marcus Aranda have each belted eight home runs on the season. The Warhawks rank fourth nationally with 81 doubles on the year. On the mound, The Warhawks are coming off a 9-4 midweek win over Mississippi Valley State on Tuesday, in which they took the lead with a five-run eighth inning. ULM has gone with the same starting rotation all season long with Adam Brodnax, Brandt Corley and JC Dermody. All three have a winning record this season.
SERIES HISTORY
App State holds a narrow 12-10 lead in the all-time series, which began when the Mountaineers joined the Sun Belt in 2015. App State won last year's series in Monroe, taking both wins in run-rule fashion.
Caleb Cross threw a complete game on Friday night in that series, while the offense scored 42 runs across the three-game set.
GAS FROM GAGE
Right-handed pitcher
Gage Peterson has been sensational for the Mountaineers through eight starts this season. He has struck out at least six batters in all eight outings and leads the Sun Belt with a 1.60 ERA, which ranks 14
th nationally. Peterson recorded a career-high 11 strikeouts against Presbyterian on March 7 and followed it up with seven scoreless innings and nine strikeouts against No. 16 Coastal Carolina on March 14. He has not allowed an earned run in four of his eight outings.
Peterson was named to the National Pitcher of the Year Watch List on March 11. The JuCo transfer from Walters Peterson posted an 11.98 K/9 across two seasons at the junior college level and sits at 12.20 this season. Peterson's 61 strikeouts on the year lead the Sun Belt and 27
th nationally. He also ranks 21
st in the country allowing just 5.40 hits per nine innings. He is on pace to join Xander Hamilton (2023) as the only pitchers in program history with 100+ strikeouts in a season.
FLAMIN' HOT DIRITO
After early-season dominance out of the bullpen,
Nick DiRito was moved into the weekend rotation, where he has started each of the last five weekends. DiRito has struck out 49 batters while walking just 13 in 39.0 innings this season. His 3.77 strikeout-to-walk ratio ranks 11 in the Sun Belt. The righty also owns a 11.31 K/9 rate on the year, which ranks fourth in the league. 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.
LED BY LUFT
Sophomore outfielder
Riley Luft has been on a surge for the Mountaineers, hitting safely in 18 of his last 20 games. Over that stretch, Luft is 27-for-79 (.341) with 23 RBIs, raising his average from .172 to .296 during that span. Luft played in 42 games as a freshman (starting 36) last season and has played and started 29 this season. He has hit safely in seven straight games, including two hits in five of those contests.
TALK TO CHUCK
Outfielder
Charlie Evans is riding a 15-game hitting streak (21-59, .356), raising his average from .250 to .325. 14 of his 17 runs scored this season have come during that span. Evans is also an elite defender and leads the country in defensive runs saved by a center fielder this season.
FOUR SCORE...
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 over the weekend, to finish his week 10-for-15 with five RBIs. A transfer from Florida Gulf Coast. Mummau has hit safely in six of his last seven games.
PUIG IS CLUTCH
Ethan Puig lined a go-ahead RBI single in the eighth inning last Friday to lift App State to a last-at-bat win over Marshall, 5-4. Puig's single capped an 11-game hitting streak, in which the sophomore infielder tallied seven multi-hit efforts. He has raised his average from .243 to .328 since March 14, with hits in 12 of his last 13 games.
2-WAY STANDOUT
Steven Smith has impressed for the Mountaineers in the early season – both at the plate and on the mound. The transfer from Division II Emory and Henry is batting a team-high .393 with 13 doubles, five home runs and 27 RBIs. Smith enjoyed a career day at UNC Asheville on Tuesday. He hit a first pitch home run to lead off the game and went on to collect four hits (including another home run and a double) and scored a career-high five runs in the win. He was recognized as the mid-major loud performance of the day by D1Baseball. Smith also finished the game out on the mound and has tossed 7.0 innings across six appearances this season. He is the first two-way player for the Mountaineers since Andrew Terrell and Phillip Cole pitched and hit in 2021.
WALK THIS WAY
Senior catcher
Tommy Walker enjoyed a career day at the plate on Tuesday. The Charlotte, N.C. native blasted a fourth-inning grand slam for his first collegiate home run en route to a 18-5 win over UNC Asheville. Walker finished the contest with a career-high five RBIs, matching
Kameron Miller for the most in a game this season. After tallying just one extra-base hit in his first three seasons, Walker has seen five of his ten hits this year go for extra bases (3 doubles, 1 triple, 1 home run).
BRINGING THE WIFF
App State pitching has struck out 283 batters this season, the fifth-most in the Sun Belt. The Mountaineers staff owns a 9.7 K/9 rate this season, a major jump from the Mountaineers 7.7 K/9 rate from a season ago. The K/9 rate ranks fourth the Sun Belt and 56th nationally. App State has also lowered its team ERA from 7.03 in 2025 to 5.40 in 2026 under first-year pitching coach
Heath Blackmon.
WHAT A RELIEF
Redshirt senior
Jordan Fisher has been dialed in out of the bullpen of late, recording three straight outings of two scoreless innings in relief. He earned his first victory of the season on Friday against Marshall and has recorded two saves on the year. He has lowered his ERA to 4.35. Left-hander
Jake Beaty has also been strong this season and has not allowed an earned run in seven of his nine outings on the year. Beaty owns a 4.50 ERA on the season and opponents are hitting just .235 against the senior.
FOR THE GREATER GOOD
App State leads the Sun Belt and ranks fourth in the country with 25 sacrifice flies this season, accounting for 10% of the team's runs this year. App State finished last season with 29 sac flies, a mark that ranked third in the Sun Belt and 59
thnationally.
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 seven top-75 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. Southern Miss is ranked 10th in this week's top-25 poll, with Coastal ranked 11th.
UP NEXT
App State will travel to Cullowhee, N.C. on Tuesday to close out its home-and-home with Western Carolina. The Catamounts won the first matchup 13-3 in Boone on March 10. They are 20-14 on the season and 3-3 in league play ahead of a weekend set against Mercer.
