Greensboro, N.C. – The Western Carolina baseball team dropped its Southern Conference series-opener at UNCG on Friday evening, 17-8, at the UNCG Baseball Stadium. The Spartans outslugged the Catamounts, 19-to-13, with both teams finishing with six extra-base hits aside.
 
WCU (21-13, 9-5 SoCon) homered four times in the loss including three, solo home runs and the first career round-tripper for freshman Nate Stocum coming as a pinch-hitter. The Raleigh, N.C., native belted a two-run blast in the top of the seventh inning to pull WCU back to within three, 11-8, before the Spartans scored the game's final six runs to provide the final tally.
 
Justice Bigbie homered and doubled twice in a 4-for-4 effort at the plate with Pascanel Ferreras leading off the game with a home run down the right-field line in a 2-for-4 effort as the Catamounts took an early 2-0 lead. Seth Graves also homered for the Catamounts as WCU had a 3-2 edge going to the bottom of the second inning.
 
Will Prater, who singled in a 1-for-3 outing, handed the Catamounts their final lead of the day on a sacrifice fly to score Bigbie in the top of the third. However, UNCG exploded for five runs in the bottom of the third and did not trail the remainder of the day.
 
WCU starter Zebby Matthews (6-2) suffered just his second loss of the season, roughed up for eight earned runs on 11 base hits including two doubles and a home run through just three innings with a strikeout. The bullpen was touched for nine more runs on eight hits with Jack Snyder and Nick Hyde both striking out two.
 
UNCG (21-19, 7-12 SoCon) had seven players post multiple-hit games led by Corey Rosier as the Spartans scored in seven of the eight innings in which they took swings. Rosier finished 4-for-6 with six RBI, blasting a grand slam home run in the eighth inning to provide the exclamation point for the home squad. Josh Madole (2-for-6, 2 RBI) and Pres Cavenaugh (2-for-4, 4 RBI) both homered for UNCG while Zack Budzik finished 3-for-3 with a triple and three RBI.
 
Spartan reliever Austin Parsley (6-2) recorded the victory after starter Brendan Collins was chased in the fifth inning before reaching the minimum. Both Parsley and Collins recorded four strikeouts apiece with seven of the eight runs allowed going as earned.
 
The series concludes with a doubleheader on Saturday beginning at 1 p.m. at the UNCG Baseball Stadium. The game is slated to be streamed on ESPN+ (paid subscription required).