App State’s Tolley Adds Third-Team All-America Honor from D1Baseball

June 27, 2024

Online: https://appstatesports.com/news/2024/6/27/tolley-adds-third-team-all-america-honor-from-d1baseball.aspx

BOONE, N.C. – App State outfielder Banks Tolley earned another All-America honor, adding third-team recognition from D1Baseball to a second-team listing from ABCA/Rawlings.

The senior center fielder led the Sun Belt Conference in home runs (26), slugging percentage (.781) and OPS (1.265) while ranking second in batting average (.379) and RBIs (77), fourth in on-base (.484), fifth in runs scored (70) and tied for seventh in hits (85) on his way to being named the Sun Belt Newcomer of the Year and a first-team all-conference selection. 

Tolley, Georgia’s Charlie Condon and Austin Peay’s Lyle Miller-Green were the only Division I players in the country with at least a .375 batting average, 25-plus home runs and 75-plus RBIs. Tolley tied for 13th nationally in home runs and 17th nationally in RBIs while also ranking in the top 50 for highest batting average.

Tolley became the 19th All-America player in program history and the first to earn the honor since Daniel Kassouf’s first-team nod in 2012.

“Banks is a special player. He will go down as one of the Mountaineer all-time greats despite being a part of App State Baseball for just one year,” head coach Kermit Smith said earlier this summer. “He’s impacted our program in many ways, not just with his play on the field but by being a great teammate and embodying our program’s values. This recognition is incredibly well deserved and I couldn’t be happier for him.” 
  
The Madison, Miss., native set the single-season program record with 26 home runs, blowing past the previous record of 17.
 
Tolley tallied five multi-homer games and registered the second three-homer game in program history, culminating with a walk-off blast in the 10th inning for a win over Georgia Southern on May 16 to secure the Mountaineers a top-six seed in the Sun Belt Tournament.
 
In Montgomery, Ala., Tolley went 5-for-16 with a double, a homer and six RBIs in four games and was selected to the Sun Belt All-Tournament team.
 
He also posted 27 multi-hit games and 21 multi-RBI games, hitting safely in 29 of his final 35 contests. Tolley set the App State single-season record for home runs (26), RBIs (77) and total bases (175). He ranks second in single-season history for runs scored (70) and slugging (.781).

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