Cullowhee, N.C. – Western Carolina baseball travels to Boiling Springs, N.C., on Wednesday to face the Gardner-Webb Runnin' Bulldogs in the second road game of the 2023 season. First pitch at Bill Masters Field at John Henry Moss Stadium is scheduled for 4 p.m.
Coverage of Wednesday's game is available online through Gardner-Webb's live stats at GWUSports.com and a
link available at CatamountSports.com.
Western Carolina (2-6) looks to snap a five-game slide, most recently dropping last weekend's three-game series to Xavier. The Catamounts are seeking their first road victory of the season after dropping a 3-0 match-up last week at another Big South foe, Presbyterian.
WCU is batting .260 collectively as a team, hitting seven of its eight seasonal home runs last weekend against the Musketeers.
Pascanel Ferreras is batting a team-best .414 among the regulars to rank seventh in the SoCon and has collected a team-high 12 hits, tie for the fourth-most in the league.
Zach Ketterman has a team-best three doubles and has drawn eight walks, while
Nate Stocum homered twice over the weekend to rank tied for second in the conference.
Defensively, WCU has turned seven double-plays this season, tied for the second-most in the SoCon.
Coby Ingle (0-1) is scheduled to make his second-consecutive midweek start. The transfer from Reidsville, N.C., struck out two in three innings in his first appearance for the Purple and Gold last week at Presbyterian, allowing two runs – one of which was earned – on three hits.
Gardner-Webb (4-4) has yet to play a road game this season as the Runnin' Bulldogs open the year with nine-straight home dates, concluding with WCU's visit in the midweek. GWU dropped 3-of-4 to Rider to open the season but has countered a four-game winless drought with three-straight victories including wins over Northwestern, Michigan State, and Toledo over its last three outings.
With five players batting over .300 on the season, the Runnin' Bulldogs are batting .242 collectively as a team while averaging 4.6 runs on 7.4 hits per game. The pitching staff has a 5.79 ERA over 70 total innings of work, allowing an average of 5.8 runs on 8.8 hits per game.
WCU leads the all-time series with the Runnin' Bulldogs 18-10-1 including a 9-5 mark in games played on the road. GWU snapped WCU's four-game series win streak with a 10-inning victory, 10-9, last May in Boiling Springs.
Following Wednesday's midweek clash, the Catamounts return home to host the Eastern Kentucky Colonels for a three-game nonconference series at Childress Field / Hennon Stadium. That series against EKU is scheduled for a 4 p.m. first pitch on Friday with coverage scheduled on ESPN+ (
paid subscription required), with the series continuing at 2 p.m. on Saturday and concluding Sunday at 1 p.m. (
Game times subject to change based on weather conditions).
Keep track of everything related to Catamount baseball and WCU Athletics through social media outlets on Facebook (fb.com/CatamountSports), Twitter (@Catamounts, @CatamountBSB), and Instagram (wcu_catamounts, catamountbsb).
2023 Catamount Baseball – Western Carolina (2-6) at Gardner-Webb (4-4)
Wednesday, March 1 | 4:00 pm |
Coverage: Live Stats (StatBroadcast)
Projected Pitching Match-up:
WCU – R-So. RHP
Coby Ingle (0-1, 3.00 ERA; 3.0 IP, 3K, 0 BB)
GWU – R-Fr. LHP Reid Bertram (0-1, 8.10 ERA; 3.1 IP, 3K, 1BB)
