Cullowhee, N.C. – Western Carolina baseball hosts its final nonconference home game of the 2022 regular season on Wednesday night as it entertains the USC Upstate Spartans at 6 p.m. at Childress Field / Hennon Stadium. The game is scheduled to be broadcast on ESPN+ (paid subscription required) with live stats available online at CatamountSports.com.
 
Wednesday's game has been dubbed Star Wars Night, playing on "May the Fourth" (May 4th) a play on words stemming from the iconic phrase used throughout the movie saga, "May the Force be with you."
 
Western Carolina (20-23) is coming off its second-consecutive Southern Conference series victory, taking 2-of-3 in back-to-back weekends on the road both at The Citadel and most recently at VMI. The Catamounts are 3-6 in midweek games this season including a 2-2 record in games played at home. WCU is also 3-3 against Big South Conference opponents this year, taking two against Gardner-Webb, splitting the series with Presbyterian, and falling to both UNC Asheville and USC Upstate.
 
Senior Bryson Parks carries a 16-game reached base safely streak into Wednesday's game while classmate Will Prater has reached in 13-consecutive. Pascanel Ferreras is coming off a nine-hit week that included seven extra-base hits, collecting Southern Conference Player of the Week accolades on Monday. The Stone Mountain, Ga., product has a team-long four-game hitting streak entering the nonconference tilt.
 
Sophomore RHP Nick Hyde will get the start for WCU – his third start in the past week. He took the mound first last Wednesday against Presbyterian, striking out six over two innings – and again got the nod in Sunday's series finale at VMI, tossing a season-long 3.1 innings.
 
Wednesday night's game opens a five-game road swing for USC Upstate (27-17) that includes a three-game league set at Longwood in Farmville, Va., and a midweek visit to in-state foe South Carolina next Tuesday, May 10. The Spartans have won six of their last seven games overall including a Big South sweep of North Carolina A&T and taking 2-of-3 from Gardner-Webb at home last weekend.
 
Sophomore RHP Trey Miller will start Wednesday's game for USC Upstate, his ninth start of the season and third coming in the midweek. He's recorded 11.0 innings pitched in two previous nonconference midweek starts with six strikeouts and a 3.27 ERA. Like WCU, USC Upstate garnered a weekly honor from its conference office as outfielder Noah Myers homered in three-straight games and collected six RBI in earning Big South Player of the Week honors.
 
USC Upstate took the first meeting between the two squads 9-3 back on Feb. 23 in Spartanburg, snapping WCU's six-game series win streak. The Catamounts led 3-2 through six complete and were tied entering the home half of the eighth inning before the Spartans blasted the scoreboard for six runs to provide the final tally. Sophomores Nate Stocum and Pascanel Ferreras both collected two hits apiece to pace WCU with Stocum and Will Prater tallying RBI – Stocum's coming on a triple. For the Spartans, Devin Buckner drove a three-run double down the leftfield line as a part of the eighth with Noah Rabon collecting a pair of RBI on two hits.
 
The WCU–Upstate series dates back to 1986 with the Catamounts leading the series 7-3 – though Wednesday night's match-up is just the third since the Spartans officially made the move to the NCAA Division I ranks in 2007. It's also the first meeting in Cullowhee since 1989.
 
Following Wednesday night's game, the Catamounts host one of the SoCon leaders as the Mercer Bears (35-9, 9-3 SoCon) come to Cullowhee for a three-game conference series this weekend at Childress Field / Hennon Stadium. The series opens Friday, May 6 with a 5 p.m. first pitch, followed by a 2 p.m. Saturday, May 7 start and a 1 p.m. first pitch for the finale on Mother's Day, Sunday, May 8.
 
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Projected Starting Pitchers:
WCU – RHP Nick Hyde (0-0, 8.62 ERA; 15.2 IP, 19K, 6BB)
Upstate – RHP Trey Miller (1-3, 5.44 ERA; 44.2 IP, 18K, 22BB)