By Mike London
Salisbury Post
MOORESVILLE — Steven Smith is working 40 hours a week (CRP USA in Mooresville) this summer and swinging a wood bat for the Statesville Owls, while he prepares for the biggest challenge of his baseball life.
Smith, a 2021 West Rowan graduate, has finally reached his goal of being a Division I baseball player.
He has signed with Appalachian State, and he is well aware of what playing in the Sun Belt Conference means. It means taking on national-level programs such as Coastal Carolina and Southern Miss. That’s a big step up from his time in the D-II South Atlantic Conference with Emory & Henry. In the SAC, the bullies were Catawba and Lenoir-Rhyne.
Smith, who played the 2022 and 2023 seasons at Caldwell Tech, will be taking advantage of a court ruling on junior colleges that eventually could alter the landscape of college sports.
A lawsuit was brought against the NCAA by Diego Pavia, a Vanderbilt quarterback. A judge was receptive to Pavia’s argument that the years he played junior college ball should not count against his years of NCAA eligibility because junior college offered no meaningful opportunities to earn NIL and no television exposure.
In January, the NCAA announced an eligibility extension for athletes who had played at non-NCAA schools such as NAIA schools and jucos, granting them an additional year of NCAA play for the 2025-26 school year. Things could change down the road, but that policy is in place for now.
“I’d been banking on getting that additional year,” Smith said. “I plan on soaking in every day I get to play for Appalachian State.”
Rowan baseball fans started hearing about Smith when he emerged as a varsity standout for West Rowan back in 2019. He was a sophomore that season and batted .329.
Smith is 5-foot-9, but he’s a strong and twitchy two-way player.
There was a showcase game the summer after Smith graduated from West. Smith played for a team of lightly recruited and un-recruited guys and personally beat a stacked South Charlotte Panthers team filled with D-I recruits in Greensboro. Smith’s team won 2-1. He hit a two-run homer and closed the game on the mound.
Smith has a 90-miles-per-hour right arm, he’s a dependable infielder, and he has stunning power at the plate for someone his size. He would have become a major star in high school, but his junior season at West was derailed by COVID and he got only half of a delayed senior season. Because of the pandemic, his only offers were from D-II and D-III schools, and his dream was D-I.
So he headed to Caldwell Tech, a junior college in Hudson. He thrived for coach Frank Pait. Smith was outstanding at Caldwell Tech for two seasons (2022-23), batting .331 and .367 and totaling 17 homers, 103 runs scored and 77 RBIs. He also went 4-0 on the mound.
Smith moved on to Emory, Va., to play for the Emory & Henry Wasps. He became a starter as a junior in 2024, but experienced modest success. He batted .240 with five homers and 14 RBIs.
Labrum surgery in the summer of 2024, prior to his senior season, threatened to end Smith’s career, but Smith had other ideas.
“When we got started last fall at Emory & Henry, I still couldn’t do very much,” Smith said. “I didn’t play until the last two weeks of fall ball. I was thinking then it would probably be my last baseball season, so I did everything I could to get ready for it and make the most of it. I was doing physical therapy three times a week and hitting in the cages every day. I worked every day on hitting breaking balls.”
The PT and the cage work paid off. His second season for the Wasps was incredible, probably the best season any Wasp ever has had. Playing third base, Smith tied the school record for RBIs in a season with 58. He broke the program records for runs (53), hits (84) and doubles (22). He batted .420. His 12 homers, were one shy of the program record.
There was a game against Lenoir-Rhyne when Smith went 4-for-5 with four RBIs. He had a 4-for-4 against Tusculum and a five-RBI game against Mars Hill.
He was second team All-SAC and second team All-Southeast Region and he made the SAC Commissioner’s Honor Roll in the classroom.
After the court ruling and the NCAA announcement of an extra year, at least for those athletes playing in 2025-26, Smith entered the transfer portal and settled into a summer of playing for the Owls, who are based at West Iredell High School.
The opportunity at App State came through a network of baseball friends and baseball coaches, who have been impressed with Smith over the years.
“Johnny Meadows (a longtime coach in Mooresville) called (East Rowan AD and former coach) Brian Hightower, and Coach Hightower called Ross Steedley, who is an assistant at App State. Coach Steedley played for Hightower at East. App State was interested and when I went up there to visit, I was sold on the program quickly. It’s a beautiful place to play baseball.”
Smith said that after spending 15 minutes with personable App State head coach Kermit Smith, he felt like he’d known him his whole life.
“He reminded me of Coach Pait at Caldwell Tech,” Smith said.
While he had a staggering statistical season in 2025 in D-II, Smith knows he’s still got to keep improving. D-I velocity is going to be greater and the breaking balls and locations will be sharper. He plans to work every day to be ready. He may even pitch some for the Mountaineers, as his arm has come back strong. He can reach the low 90s on the radar gun.
“I’ve never had a weight room to work in like they’ve got at App State,” Smith said. “I’ve never had the level of pitching coach that I’m going to have now. I haven’t peaked yet.”
Smith has played a lot of baseball in one small part of the world. He’s pretty sure it was meant to be this way.
“Caldwell was a hour down the mountain from App State and Emory & Henry was an hour up the mountain from App State,” Smith said. “Now I’ll be right in the middle of where I played the last four seasons and right where I’ve always wanted to be.”
