Cullowhee, N.C. – Western Carolina baseball travels to in-state foe Gardner-Webb on Wednesday evening for a 5 p.m. tilt with the Runnin' Bulldogs. The game concludes a five-game road swing for the Catamounts that began on March 30 at sixth-ranked Tennessee.
 
Wednesday's game will be broadcast on the Catamount Sports Network with live streaming audio available online at CatamountSports.com beginning at 4:45 p.m.
 
The Catamounts (14-7) snapped a three-game slide by taking the series finale against Wofford in league play last Saturday in Spartanburg. WCU fell by one run in the Friday night series opener before splitting the Saturday doubleheader, dropping a 12-9 decision in game one before scoring 10 runs over the final four innings to defeat the Terriers 11-6 in the nightcap.
 
Western Carolina continues to pace the SoCon in team batting average with a .296 collective average – 19th in the nation – that includes five regulars batting above the .350 mark. The Catamounts have five of the top 10 batting averages and on-base percentages in the conference entering the week. WCU enters the mid-week ranked 21st nationally in NCAA RPI and is second in the country in scoring, averaging 9.1 runs per game. Defensively, WCU is tied for 34th nationally with an average of 0.86 double-plays per game.
 
Junior Will Prater boasts a SoCon-best .442 average with a double and a triple among his 23 base hits. Seven Catamounts have double-digit RBI this season with four driving in 20-or-more to date. Luke Robinson has a .369 batting average that includes a .702 slugging percentage that features seven doubles, a team-best seven home runs, and a team-leading 27 RBI – tied for fourth in the SoCon. Justice Bigbie has scored a league-best 34 runs this season.
 
Gardner-Webb (11-10) returns home after a midweek Big South Conference game at Radford in Virginia on Tuesday evening. The Runnin' Bulldogs raced to a 9-2 lead through six complete before holding off the Highlanders in a 9-7 victory as Radford used a four-run eighth inning to provide the final tally.
 
GWU enters Wednesday's game batting .249 collectively as a team with three regulars batting above the .300 threshold. Bo Rusher leads the team with a .321 batting average including 18 hits with four doubles and 10 RBI. Keiji Parkhurst paces the Runnin' Bulldogs with 16 RBI, one of five players with double-digit RBI to date.
 
The two squads have two common opponents to date this season – Big South opponent UNC Asheville and SoCon-foe, Wofford. Both teams dropped 2-of-3 against the Terriers while Gardner-Webb downed UNC Asheville 6-3 on March 23 while the Catamounts fell to UNCA in nonconference action 10-4 back on Feb. 23.
 
WCU leads the all-time series with Gardner-Webb, 15-9-1, splitting the two most recent meetings back in the 2019 season. The Runnin' Bulldogs downed the Catamounts in the most recent meeting in Cullowhee 5-4 on March 20, 2019, while the Catamounts edged Gardner-Webb 4-3 in a neutral field contest at Keeter Stadium in Shelby on April 10, 2019. All told, GWU has won four of the last five in the head-to-head series including two-straight in Boiling Springs.
 
 
Projected Pitching Match-Up:
WCU – R-Jr. RHP Tristen Campbell (0-0. 3.38 ERA) vs. GAWB – Jr. RHP Noah Davis (0-1, 12.46)
 
Additional Catamount Diamond Notes:

• Junior Daylan Nanny carries an active nine-game hitting streak and a 21-game reached base safely streak into the mid-week match-up at Gardner-Webb … Nanny has reached base successfully in every game this season to date – and it's thought to be the longest active reached base safely streak in the SoCon;
• Daniel Walsh, who missed four games due to concussion protocols, has reached base safely in 17-straight games this season – every game in which he has played … Seth Graves has a 10-game active streak;
• Will Prater has a six-game hitting streak while Luke Robinson has hits in five consecutive games entering Wednesday's game at Gardner-Webb;
• Justice Bigbie's 26-game reached base safely streak that included the first 17 games of this season and the final nine games of the abbreviated 2020 season is tied for the longest streak by a SoCon player over the past two seasons … ETSU's Ethan Cady had a 26-game streak halted on Tuesday as he went 0-for-5 with an RBI in the 15-5 loss to No. 13 Virginia Tech in Johnson City.

 
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