Game One Box Score | Game Two Box Score

Forest City, N.C. - Western Carolina dropped a pair of neutral field, nonconference games to Virginia Commonwealth with both decisions coming on Saturday afternoon at McNair Field, home of the Coastal Plain League Forest City Owls. The two teams concluded game one that was suspended on Friday night with the Rams holding on for a 5-4 victory before completing the two-game sweep with an 11-1 victory in eight innings in game two.

Western Carolina carried a 2-1 lead through five innings from Friday night into Saturday afternoon only to see VCU push across four runs between the sixth and ninth innings to take a 5-2 lead into the home portion of the final frame. The Catamounts managed a pair of runs in the home half of the inning, bringing the tying run to the plate but could not find the equalizing run in falling, 5-4.

In the second game, the Rams broke-open a three-run, 4-1, contest with a six-run seventh inning that included a Mitchel Lacey three-run home run on their way to the 11-1 win. WCU's offense was stymied in game two by the VCU pitching staff, limited to five total hits -- two coming by freshman Immanuel Wilder, who entered the game for Justice Bigbie and finished 2-for-2 for his first career multi-hit game.

VCU pounded out double-digit hits in both games, finishing with 13 in game one and a dozen in the second game.

Senior Spencer Holcomb collected a team-best three hits over the two games, all coming in game one with a 3-for-5 performance at the plate. The Pfafftown, N.C., native extended his active reached base safely streak to 25-straight games by drawing a walk in game two, though his 12-game hitting streak was halted with an 0-for-3 showing at the plate.

Holcomb started game two as the designated hitter marking just the third time out of 52 games that he hadn't been behind the plate this season.

Freshman Will Prater tallied a pair of hits in game one while Justin Sparks and Wilder also finished with two hits apiece with Sparks singling in both games while Wilder collected the two-hit outing in game two. Senior Caleb Robinson hit a home run Friday night to take over the team-lead with eight round-trippers this season

On the mound, redshirt junior Taylor Purus (2-12) was saddled with the game one loss, allowing two runs on three hits with a walk and a strikeout. Senior Jake Niezen made the first of two appearances on the mound, striking out two in two innings of work with a pair of runs allowed on four hits. WCU used four pitchers including each of its weekend starters in game one, all by design, with Chase Walter and Tristan Baker tossing 2.2 and 2.1 innings, respectively, on Friday.

In the second game, freshman LHP Caleb Bishop (0-5) took the loss, tossing 3.1 innings with four runs allowed -- only one of which was earned -- on six hits with five freebies including four walks and a hit batter. The Wilmington, N.C., native struck out a team-high three. Zach Franklin worked an inning and two thirds of hitless, scoreless relief with a walk his lone blemish while junior Michael Davis was touched for six runs on four hits, working around four walks and two HBPs with a pair of strikeouts. Niezen was the third of three relief arms for WCU, striking out two to give him four K's on the day.

Western Carolina will be seeded ninth and opens play in the 2018 Southern Conference Baseball Championship, presented by Holston Gases, on Tuesday, May 22 against No. 8 seed The Citadel at Fluor Field in Greenville, S.C. The two winningest baseball programs will play a single-elimination game to determine the final entry into the double-elimination portion of the tournament that opens Wednesday morning at 9:00 am. The winner of Tuesday's game will face top-seeded UNCG at 12:30 pm on Wednesday afternoon.

2018 Southern Conference Baseball Championship Bracket 

Each game of the 2018 SoCon Baseball Championship that WCU plays in will be broadcast on the Catamount Sports Network with live streaming audio available online at CatamountSports.com. Every game of the 2018 tournament will be video streamed through the SoCon Digital Network.

May 22 (Tuesday)
SoCon Championship presented by Holston Gases (Fluor Field; Greenville, S.C.)
Game 1: #8 The Citadel vs. #9 Western Carolina - 10 a.m.

May 23 (Wednesday)
SoCon Championship presented by Holston Gases (Fluor Field; Greenville, S.C.)
Game 2: #4 VMI vs. #5 Mercer - 9 a.m.
Game 3: #1 UNCG vs. Winner Game 1 - 12:30 p.m.
Game 4: #2 Samford vs. #7 Furman - 4 p.m.
Game 5: #3 Wofford vs. #6 ETSU - 7:30 p.m.

May 24 (Thursday)
SoCon Championship presented by Holston Gases (Fluor Field; Greenville, S.C.)
Game 6: Loser Game 2 vs. Loser Game 3 - 9 a.m.
Game 7: Loser Game 4 vs. Loser Game 5 - 12:30 p.m.
Game 8: Winner Game 2 vs. Winner Game 3 - 4 p.m.
Game 9: Winner Game 4 vs. Winner Game 5 - 7:30 p.m.

May 25 (Friday)
SoCon Championship presented by Holston Gases (Fluor Field; Greenville, S.C.)
Game 10: Winner Game 7 vs. Loser Game 8 - 3:30 p.m.
Game 11: Winner Game 6 vs. Loser Game 9 - 7 p.m.

May 26 (Saturday)
SoCon Championship presented by Holston Gases (Fluor Field; Greenville, S.C.)
Game 12: Winner Game 8 vs. Winner Game 9 - 12 p.m.
Game 13: Winner Game 10 vs. Winner Game 11 - 3:30 p.m.
Game 14: Winner Game 13 vs. Loser Game 12 - 7 p.m.

May 27 (Sunday)
SoCon Championship presented by Holston Gases (Fluor Field; Greenville, S.C.)
Game 15: Winner Game 12 vs. Winner Game 14 - 12 p.m.
^Game 16: Winner Game 15 vs. Loser Game 15 - 40 minutes after Game 15

^ if necessary