The 2023 season is Justin Aspegren's eighth with the Mountaineers, after helping lead Santa Barbara City College to three championships in the ultra-competitive Western State Conference over his last five seasons there.

Aspegren remained with the Mountaineers after Kermit Smith was hired as App State's head coach in the summer of 2016. Three times in four seasons from 2017-20, one of Aspegren’s pitchers was picked in the top 13 rounds of the MLB Draft, including Jack Hartman's fourth-round selection to the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2020. In 2022, Kaleb Bowman ('19) also signed a free-agent deal with the Milwaukee Brewers following three professional seasons spent playing internationally.

Aspegren's 2022 staff totaled 432 strikeouts on the season, the third highest total in program history. Mountaineers pitching struck out at least 10 opposing hitters 16 times on the year, including a season-high 17 strikeouts at Little Rock on May 24. In a contest at home against UNCW on March 5, App State pitching tied a Smith Stadium record by notching 16 strikeouts on the day. One month into the season, Xander Hamilton ranked tied for second in the nation with 51 strikeouts through his first five starts (15 K/9) before having his season cut short due to injury.

The 2021 season included an All-Sun Belt campaign from Friday night pitcher Tyler Tuthill and a third straight top-10 entry in the App State record book for full-season strikeouts by Aspegren's pitching staff. 

In a 2020 season shorted by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, App State pitchers allowed opponents to hit just .249 against them. Highlights from the 2020 season included App State's first shutout win over Western Carolina since 1990 and a combined 19-strikeout performance at UNCG on March 1, which tied a program record set back in 2011.

Hartman tied for first in the Sun Belt and 17th nationally with four saves. Freshman Noah Hall impressed during his first season as a Mountaineer, ending the season as one of only eight Sun Belt pitchers with a sub 2.00 ERA and two pitching victories. 

Four Mountaineers — Hall, sophomore Cole Hooper, redshirt sophomore Cam Roberts and junior Quinton Martinez — all tied with a team-high two pitching victories.

The 2019 team limited opponents to a .266 batting average (its best mark since 2012) and posted three shutouts, including a one-hitter against Furman. Kaleb Bowman was the official Sun Belt ERA champion, and freshman Tyler Tuthill tied Bowman for the team lead with six pitching victories.

The 2018 pitching staff had an ERA of 4.93 (its lowest since 2013), totaled 430 strikeouts on the mound (third-best number in program history) and limited opponents to a .268 batting average.

Additionally, Friday mound starter Colin Schmid was selected in the 13th round of the Major League Baseball Draft by the St. Louis Cardinals a year after 2017 closer Matt Brill was taken in the 12th round by the Arizona Diamondbacks. He was a minor league All-Star in 2018.

After six difficult starts to begin his college career, Schmid changed his delivery at the urging of Aspegren and had a 3.95 ERA with 12 victories over his final 36 appearances (35 starts) for the Mountaineers.

In 2017, the Mountaineers also made significant improvements in team ERA (5.14) and strikeouts as a staff (411). Schmid had a 3.61 ERA as a starter.

In his first season as the Mountaineers’ pitching coach in 2016, Aspegren guided one of the nation’s youngest staffs. Fifty-two of Appalachian’s 54 games were started by true freshmen. Two of Appalachian State’s true freshman starters — Breydan Gorham and Schmid — combined for a 4-2 record, 3.36 ERA, 67 strikeouts, 29 walks and .251 opponents’ batting average over the final two months of the campaign.

Aspegren came to Appalachian State after eight seasons as the associate head coach and pitching coach at Santa Barbara City College in Santa Barbara, Calif., where he helped establish SBCC as one of the nation’s top junior-college programs.

He helped lead the Vaqueros to a 192-134 record (.589) over eight seasons and three Western State Conference championships in the last five years (2011, 2014 and 2015). After finishing higher than fourth place in the WSC only twice in the 26 years prior to his arrival, SBCC finished in third place or better in all eight seasons with Aspergen on its staff.

In addition to winning its third conference championship in five years in 2015, SBCC finished 33-11 overall (good for the second-most wins and second-best winning percentage in the program’s 46-year history), took fifth in the state of California for the second-straight year and posted a school-record 2.21 team ERA. 

Individually, 32 pitchers that Aspegren coached at SBCC received all-conference recognition, six were named all-Southern California and two earned all-America honors. He also coached four WSC Pitchers of the Year in eight seasons and one Southern California Pitcher of the Year.

Thirty-five of Aspergen’s pitchers at SBCC went on to sign with four-year institutions, including 21 at the NCAA Division I level. Twelve signed professional baseball contracts, including eight Major League Baseball Draft picks.

In addition to his time at SBCC, Aspegren has also coached in some of the nation’s most prestigious collegiate summer leagues, including stints in the Cape Cod Baseball League (pitching coach, Brewster White Caps - 2009-10), Valley Baseball League (head coach, Haymarket Senators - 2011-12) and California Collegiate League (pitching coach, Santa Barbara Foresters - 2014-15). The 2014 Foresters, which included former Appalachian State baseball student-athletes Jaylin Davis and Dillon Dobson, won the National Baseball Congress World Series in Wichita, Kan.

He also served as an associate scout for the Chicago Cubs from 2013-15.

Before joining the coaching ranks, Aspegren was a baseball student-athlete at SBCC (2004-05) before transferring to NCAA Division I UC Santa Barbara for his final two collegiate seasons (2006-07). At SBCC, he was a two-year member of the Vaqueros’ starting rotation, winning13 games and earning all-conference accolades twice. As a sophomore in 2005, he was part of an SBCC pitching staff that led the state in ERA and led the Vaqueros to the postseason for the first time in 27 years.  

A Napa, Calif. native, Aspegren graduated from UC Santa Barbara in 2007 with a B.A. in business economics (exercise and sports studies minor) and earned a M.S. in exercise science (sport psychology concentration) from California University of Pennsylvania in 2013.

Aspegren and his wife, Jamie, have a daughter, Madeline.