Cullowhee, N.C. – As the Western Carolina baseball team prepared to head home to wrap-up the remainder of the fall 2020 semester with online class and final exams, head coach
Bobby Moranda and his coaching staff unveiled the trio of team captains selected by the Catamounts ahead of the 2021 season.
Returning senior
Luke Robinson, junior
Justice Bigbie, and redshirt sophomore pitcher
Zebby Matthews have each been selected as team captains for the 2021 season. Robinson and Bigbie return as team captains from the shortened 2020 season.
Robinson is one of two WCU seniors from the 2020 squad to use the COVID-19 exception to return for the 2021 campaign. He missed a combined 10 games before the stoppage in 2020 due to injury, starting all six of the games he played while posting a .333 batting average with a pair of doubles and two RBI. The McLeansville, N.C., native is a .279 career hitter with 21 doubles, four triples, 14 home runs, and a combined 83 career RBI.
The Southern Conference Player of the Year following the 2019 season, Bigbie was dubbed with the preseason honor as well as all-conference and All-America plaudits entering the 2020 campaign last spring. He was additionally the 2020 Leggett No. 7 Legacy recipient, wearing the coveted No. 7 jersey. Bigbie is a career .333 hitter with 18 home runs and 105 RBI over two-plus seasons, adding 30 doubles and a host of summer league accolades including Valley League Player of the Year honors back in 2019 for the Chesapeake, Va., product.
Matthews, a local product from Cullowhee who transferred to WCU before the 2020 season, started his Catamount career 3-1 last spring with a team-best 29 strikeouts over four starts to rank inside the top 10 in the Southern Conference in the abbreviated season. He is in just his second season wearing the Purple & Gold but was deemed captain material by his teammates.
Western Carolina's 2021 schedule will be released in the coming weeks ahead of the season slated to open in February. The Catamounts worked through the bulk of their fall practice sessions, taking advantage of temperate weather conditions much of the fall semester for both individual and team drills.
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