Cullowhee, N.C. – Western Carolina baseball opens a short four-game homestand and plays seven of its next eight games inside the friendly confines of Childress Field / Hennon Stadium beginning Tuesday evening as the Catamounts host USC Upstate out of the Big South Conference with first pitch at 5 p.m.
Tuesday's game is slated to be broadcast on
ESPN+ (
paid subscription required) with live stats available through a
link online at CatamountSports.com.
WCU's four-game homestand this week includes Tuesday's nonconference meeting with the Upstate Spartans before playing its first home Southern Conference series of the year after opening with two-straight series on the road – at UNCG and at Mercer – as the Catamounts welcome the resurgent VMI Keydets (16-13, 3-3 SoCon) to Cullowhee. The Keydets visit former WCU assistant coach Bradley LeCroy who is in his first year as head coach for the VCU Rams in Richmond on Tuesday. The WCU-VMI series is scheduled for Thursday through Saturday.
After a midweek trip to mountain-rival UNC Asheville on April 11, WCU hosts preseason SoCon favorite Wofford April 14-16.
Western Carolina (12-15, 3-3 SoCon) is coming off a dramatic and perhaps unlikely series victory in Macon, Ga., over the Mercer Bears. After dropping Friday's opener in a close 2-1 affair, the Catamounts evened the series with a 9-4 win on Saturday. Trailing by seven with two outs in the top of the ninth inning on Sunday, WCU mounted an eight-run rally to shock the Bears, 15-14. The Catamounts hit three home runs in the final frame including a three-run blast by
Cole Jones, the second grand slam of the weekend by
Pascanel Ferreras to tie the game, and the eventual game-winning home run by
James Hinson, who has a team-best eight round-trippers on the year.
USC Upstate (18-11, 5-1 Big South) took 2-of-3 in its weekend series at home against Winthrop, dropping the finale. The Spartans have played 12 games away from home, posting a 6-4 road record and a 1-1 mark in neutral field contests. The Spartans are batting .276 collectively as a team with 75 extra-base hits including 42 doubles, six triples, and 27 team home runs and are averaging 7.5 runs per game. Opponents are batting just .257 against Upstate this season but have surrendered 86 extra-base hits – 53 doubles, three triples, and 30 home runs, but are allowing just 6.2 runs per game.
Coming off a 35-win season in 2022, USC Upstate was picked second in the Big South preseason poll and represents a fourth Big South opponent on WCU's schedule to date.
Tuesday's meeting between WCU and USC Upstate represents the front-end of a nonconference home-and-home between the two as the Catamounts visit Upstate on April 18 in Spartanburg. The two have met 11 times previously on the baseball diamond dating back to 1986 with WCU leading the series, 8-3, with victories in seven of the last eight meetings that includes four-straight victories in Cullowhee. Just three of the series meetings have come in USC Upstate's NCAA Division I era (2007-present) with WCU leading, 2-1.
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2023 Catamount Baseball – Western Carolina (12-15) vs. USC Upstate (18-11)
Tues., April 3 | 5:00 pm |
Buy Tickets |
Coverage: ESPN+ |
LiveStats
Projected Pitching Match-up:
UPSTATE – RHP Caleb Costa (0-0 7.36 ERA; 5 app., 0 GS, 7.1 IP, 11K, 5BB)
WCU – Jr. LHP
Kyle Riesselmann (1-1, 5.33 ERA; 6 app., 5 GS, 25.1 IP, 26K, 8BB)
