By David Rogers. BOONE, N.C. — At 1,296, the second largest crowd in Smith Stadium history witnessed solid run production by App State in the early and middle innings on April 2. Scoreless pitching in the final three frames backed up the Mountaineers’ offense, propelling them to an 11-3, non-conference midweek win over regional rival, High Point.

Leftfielder C J Boyd has been in a little bit of a slump of late, but seemed to break out of it in leading off the bottom half of the first inning with a solo shot over the left field fence. The Mountaineers manufactured three more runs in the first frame after Boyd’s leadoff dinger, including a single each by Austin St. Laurent and Banks Tolley before Drew Holderbach ripped a 1-out single up the middle, scoring St. Laurent.

Adam Quintero fouled off the first pitch thrown to him, but then watched patiently as the Panthers’ starting pitcher, Bryan Rivera, chucked four straight balls that passed outside the strike zone, the walk loading the bases for the Mountaineers.

App State right fielder Hunter Wilder worked the count to full, 3-2, before getting a free pass to first, scoring Tolley. Then catcher Tommy Walker pushed Holderbach home with a sacrifice fly to left. That ended the first inning scoring for the Mountaineers, but they jumped in front with a 4-0 lead.

The visiting Panthers closed the deficit, scoring two runs in the second inning and one in the third while blanking App State in the bottom half of the frames with a new pitcher, Howell Polk.

But after St. Laurent singled in the bottom half of the 4th inning, then Tolley and designated hitter Braxton Church hit consecutive doubles to score two more runs, Polk was chased and replaced by Jake Potts on the mound. He didn’t fare much better, giving up run-scoring doubles to Quintero and APP second baseman Joseph Zamora. High Point brought Dalton Olsovsky to the mound to get the final out of the inning, but not before the Mountaineers had batted around in the inning, scoring 5 runs on 5 hits and had pushed the advantage to 9-3, a lead they never surrendered.

App State added two insurance runs in the bottom half of the 5th inning. After Tolley singled, Holderbach took advantage of the wind blowing out, hammering the ball deep over the left field fence for his fifth home run of the season.

Meanwhile, three righthanded relief pitchers each took a turn on the mound for the Mountaineers, including Max Tramontana, Grey LaSpaluto, and Zach Lewis. None of them allowed High Point to score a run, although Tramontana and Lewis each allowed one hit and one walk. Among the five hitters Lewis faced, three were strikeouts, scattered around an early hit, a couple of wild pitches and a walk by the redshirt sophomore from Winston-Salem.

Next up for the Mountaineers is a road trip to Harrisonburg, Va., in a Sun Belt Conference test at James Madison on April 5, 6, and 7.

KEY PERFORMERS

• APP – Drew Holderbach: 3-4, 2 runs scored, 3 RBIs, HR, walk
• APP – Banks Tolley: 3-4, 3 runs scored, 1 RBI, 2B, walk
• APP – Austin St. Laurent: 3-5, 2 runs scored, 2B, walk
• APP – Joseph Zamora: 3-5, 2 RBIs, 2B
• APP – C J Boyd: 1-5, 1 run scored, 1 RBI, HR, walk
• APP – Adam Quintero: 1-3, 1 run scored, 1 RBI, walk
• APP – Hunter Wilder: 0-2, 1 run scored, 1 RBI, 2 walks, hit by pitch
• APP – Braxton Church: 1-5, 1 run scored, 1 RBI, 2B
• HPU – Miggy Echazaretta: 1-2, 1 run scored, 3 walks, 1 stolen base
• HPU – Brayden Simpson: 1-4, 1 run scored, 1 RBI, walk
• HPU – Cael Chatham: 1-2, 1 run scored, 2B, walk

By David Rogers. BOONE, N.C. — Once in a week is one thing, but twice? It may be a High Country epidemic.

Just two days after Watauga High School’s 15-run explosion in the top of the first inning at Freedom, App State counters with 15 runs in the the first two innings against Marshall on March 30 at Smith Stadium in front of an announced crowd of 1,027 mostly Mountaineer fans — on their way to a dynamic, 19-2 win on a bright, sunny day for baseball, jackets optional in the sometimes breezy conditions. It felt like the day before Easter and had the Mountaineers been carrying baskets, there was plenty of good stuff to put in them.

BONUS PHOTOS AT BOTTOM OF ARTICLE

And it started in the top of the first inning with The Thundering Herd at bat and App State’s righthanded sophomore pitcher, Jackson Steensma, on the mound. The Byron Center, Mich., product was “feeling it” on the day, delivering a three up-three down performance in the top of the first, all strikeouts.

App State scored five runs in bottom half of the first, manufactured initially by two RBI doubles from 3B Austin St. Laurent and C Braxton Church. They were followed by run-scoring singles off the bats of Adam Quintero and Kameron Miller.

Steensma did another masterful job in retiring the side again in the top half of the second inning, 3-up and 3-down once again. Meanwhile, the Mountaineer offense was just getting started.

Early in the inning, after St. Laurent had singled through the left side of the diamond, what should have been a routine double play was muffed by the Marshall second baseman and Banks Tolley reached first on the error with St. Laurent advancing to second. Church followed with a walk, loading the bases. Drew Holderbach singled to center, scoring both St. Laurent and Tolley, but it was just the first two of what would become a 10-run inning.

Intermixed among at bats where Quintero walked and Hunter Wilder was hit by a pitch, Miller doubled down the left field line and Joseph Zamora doubled down the right field line, with three more runs scoring.

After The Herd got a second out and it looked like the visitors from West Virginia might avoid any more damage, it turned ugly — or beautiful if you were App State. St. Laurent ripped his second single of the inning, scoring Zamora and Wilder, then stole second. Tolley walked and both he and St. Laurent advanced on a wild pitch. Church walked to load the bases again, then everyone advanced on another wild pitch, St. Laurent scoring.

With obvious control problems, the Marshall righthander Cole Agemy coffed up the last run of the inning on yet another wild pitch, but mercifully the inning ended on a fly ball third out to left. But it didn’t come before App State plated 10 runs in the inning to jump out to a 15-0 lead.

With Steensma rolling on the mound for App State, he kept Marshall scoreless through the fifth inning. Meanwhile, the visitors seemed to find a solution on the mound in senior Peyton Schofield, who managed to pitch three scoreless innings with four strikeouts and just two walks. Even if the Indiana native hit a couple of Mountaineer batters in his three innings of work, he managed to wriggle out of any scoring threats from the 13 batters he faced.

Marshall finally got on the scoreboard with a 2-run blast off the bat of left fielder Elijah Vogelsong, but App State countered with four more runs in the bottom half of the inning, thanks to home runs from Tolley and Miller. For Tolley, his 2-run blast was the third of the weekend series. For Miller, his 2-run dinger was the second HR of the series, the second in as many days, and the second of his young App State career.

Next up for Mountaineers is an April 2 non-conference rematch with High Point, played at Smith Stadium. They resume Sun Belt Conference play at James Madison on April 5, 6 and 7.

TOP PERFORMERS

• APP – Jackson Steensma: winning pitcher, allowed 2 runs on 3 hits over 6 innings, w/ 7 strikeouts
• APP – Kameron Miller: 3-5, 2 runs scored, 6 RBIs, 2B, HR
• APP – Austin St. Laurent: 4-5, 4 runs scored, 3 RBIs, 2 doubles
• APP – Banks Tolley: 1-3, 3 runs scored, 2 RBIs, HR, 2 walks
• APP – Braxton Church: 1-2, 2 runs scored, 1 RBI, 2B, 2 walks
• APP – Joseph Zamora: 1-3, 1 run scored, 1 RBI, 2B
• APP – Drew Holderbach: 1-2, 2 runs scored, 2 RBIs, 3 walks
• APP – Adam Quintero: 1-3, 2 runs scored, 2 RBIs, 1 walk
• MAR – Elijah Vogelsong: 1-3, 1 run scored, 2 RBIs, HR

BONUS PHOTOS

By David Rogers. BOONE, N.C. — Senior outfielder Banks Tolley clubbed two home runs in Appalachian State’s 15-10 baseball win vs. Marshall on March 29. Teammate Drew Holderbach described Tolley’s second HR in the decisive 8th inning as “a missile” that might still be in orbit around Mother Earth.

While Tolley’s two home runs provided bookends for his day at the plate, coming in the first and eighth innings, App State’s run production was otherwise broad. A total of seven players in the lineup scored two runs each. The list includes 3B Austin St. Laurent, CF Tolley, C Braxton Church, 1B Holderbach, SS Adam Quintero, RF Hunter Wilder, and 2B Joseph Zamora.

Without hitting a home run, Zamora had arguably the best day at the plate, only an HR short of hitting the cycle, with three RBIs produced by his single, double and triple.

On the mound, Bradley Wilson was the Mountaineers starter, going five full innings while giving up three runs on six hits, with two walks and two strikeouts. In facing 23 batters, Wilson threw 97 pitches, 62 of them strikes.

Wilson was followed on the hill by Grey LaSpaluto, who has been stellar of late but had some challenges on this day. After a sixth inning in which he retired the side in order, LaSpaluto was roughed up in the seventh. Marshall manufactured four runs off the senior righthander from Apex, N.C., on five hits. After Max Tramontana relieved him, two more runs scored were credited to LaSpaluto (runners inherited).

Tramontana, the redshirt freshman, faced three batters before getting the third out of the frame, but the first two proved costly. He hit The Herd’s RF Calin Smith, then gave up a 2-run single to AJ Havrilla before getting 1B Caden Kaiser to ground out to second and bring the inning to a close.

Righthander Zach Lewis, a redshirt sophomore, pitched the final two innings and was the pitcher of record when App State exploded for six runs in the 8th, giving Lewis is third win of the season.

App State hosts Marshall in the third game of the weekend series on Saturday, March 30, with first pitch at 1 p.m.

TOP PERFORMERS

• APP – Banks Tolley: 3-5, 2 runs scored, 4 RBIs, 2 HRs
• APP – Drew Holderbach: 2-3, 2 runs scored, 3 RBIs, 2B, HR, twice hit by pitch
• APP – Joseph Zamora: 3-4, 2 runs scored, 3 RBIs, 2B, 3B
• APP – Braxton Church: 1-3, 2 runs scored, 2 walks
• APP – Adam Quintero: 2-5, 2 runs scored, 1 RBI
• APP – Kameron Miller: 1-4, 1 run scored, 1 RBI, HR, hit by pitch
• APP – Austin St. Laurent: 1-6, 2 runs scored, 1 RBI
• MAR – Owen Ayers: 3-4, 2 runs scored, 1 RBI, SF
• MAR – Gio Ferraro: 2-5, 1 run scored, 1 RBI, 2B
• MAR – AJ Havrilla: 2-3, 1 run scored, 2 RBIs. walk
• MAR – Jack Firestone: 3-4, 1 run scored, 3 RBIs, walk

BONUS PHOTOS by David Rogers for High Country Sports

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By David Rogers. BOONE, N.C. — Just when AppNation thought the future looked bright for the Mountaineers’ men’s basketball program after an historic 2023-24 season and regular season Sun Belt Conference championship, we learned today via X (formerly Twitter) that App State big men Tre’Von Spillers and Justin Abson are entering the transfer portal, along with freshman guards Jordan Marsh and Etienne Strothers.

Both Abson and Spillers contributed to App State being ranked No. 1 in NCAA Division 1 blocked shots per game. Young Marsh most often provided a spark in coming off the bench. Strothers didn’t see much, if any, action this past season but came to the Mountaineers with a strong pedigree.

QUESTIONS: Who else might be jumping ship? Is it all for NIL money? Higher exposure playing with a Big 10, SEC, Big East, ACC, or Big 12 team? What is head coach Dustin Kerns’ status?

The answer to that first question is Christopher Mantis, Terence Harcum and Xavion Brown as well as 6-9 freshman forward Josh Hayes, according to our sources close to the program.

When you subtract graduating players that include Donovan Gregory, C J Huntley and Bryant Greene, that leaves junior guard Myles Tate as the only athlete from this season’s 9-man rotation, plus 6-9 freshman center Luke Wilson, freshman guard Luke Ledford, and sophomore guard Dawson Fennema on the roster.

Assuming head coach Dustin Kerns and staff are staying, they will be busy in the coming weeks trying to pluck replacements from the transfer portal and even more aggressively recruiting from among the graduating high school seniors.

By Matt Present. BOONE, N.C. — After falling behind by five runs in the middle innings, App State put together several late-inning rallies, but the Mountaineers stranded the bases loaded in the seventh and eighth innings, falling 9-8 to Marshall in the series opener Thursday at Smith Stadium.

It was a back-and-forth affair that featured a combined 23 hits in the contest.

After falling behind 1-0 in the first inning, the Mountaineers (15-8, 3-4) leveled the score in the second on back-to-back doubles from Adam Quintero and Hunter Wilder.

Marshall (9-16, 3-4) then jumped in front in the third inning with a three-run home run, and after Austin St. Laurent blasted a solo home run in the third to get a run back, the Herd put together another three-run inning in the sixth to push their advantage to 7-2.

In the bottom of the sixth, App State responded with a three-run inning of its own. Graham Smiley and Wilder each walked, and then with two outs, Joseph Zamora belted a three-run home run, his second of the season, bringing the deficit to 7-5.

The Herd answered with a pair of runs in the top of the seventh inning, but the Mountaineers responded again with a run in the seventh and two in the eighth, but left six men aboard across the final two frames and 11 total in the ballgame.

Collin Welch was impressive in relief, striking out four across the final 3.1 innings, and allowing just two unearned runs.

St. Laurent, Banks Tolley, Braxton Church, and Zamora all finished with multi-hit games.

The two teams will play game two of the series Friday at 5 p.m. and the game will be broadcast on ESPN+.

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