Cullowhee, N.C. – Western Carolina junior shortstop Pascanel Ferreras and freshman left-handed pitcher Ryan White collected accolades on Tuesday afternoon as the postseason All-Southern Conference honors were released by the league office. Ferreras was selected first-team All-SoCon by both the league's head coaches and the SoCon Sports Media Association (SCSMA), while White landed on the SoCon All-Freshman team as chosen by the conference's eight head coaches.
 
Ferreras is a three-time All-SoCon selection, collecting his second, first-team honor in consecutive years after garnering second-team shortstop honors as a freshman in 2021. White is the 15th different Catamount to collect SoCon All-Freshman honors since 2009.
 
The seventh-seeded Catamounts open play at the 2023 Southern Conference Baseball Championship presented by Holston Gases with a 7 p.m., single-elimination match-up against sixth-seeded UNCG on Wednesday evening at Fluor Field. Wednesday's winner advances into the double-elimination portion of tourney play with a 7 p.m. date with No. 3 seed Wofford on Thursday at 7 p.m.
 
The SoCon's Preseason Player of the Year for a second-consecutive season, Ferreras enters postseason play leading Western Carolina in eight of the top offensive categories including batting average (.325), base hits (67), runs scored (51), RBI (53), total bases (119), slugging percentage (.578), HBPs (10), and on-base percentage (.434). The Stone Mountain, Ga., product has 28 extra-base hits this season including 16 doubles and 12 home runs with nine – five doubles and four homers – recorded in SoCon play. Ferreras ranks among the SoCon leaders in four offensive categories including RBI (t-4th), runs scored (t-7th), walks drawn (t-9th, 32), and total bases (10th).
 
Entering this week's conference tournament, Ferreras continues to try and become the first Catamount to claim the squad's Triple Crown multiple times. He led WCU last season in batting average (.362), RBI (60), and home runs (15). Headed into Wednesday's opener against UNCG, Ferreras paces WCU's regulars in batting average (.325) and RBI (53), but is tied for second in home runs with 12, one shy of team-leader Nate Stocum who has 13. Only twice in WCU baseball history has the squad ever had a Triple Crown winner in back-to-back seasons – Jim Ray in 1961 and Ken Morgan in 1962; Jared Greenwood in 2004 and Steven Strausbaugh in 2005.
 
Defensively, Ferreras – who was listed on the initial watch list for the 2023 Brooks Wallace Award given to the nation's top shortstop – has recorded 131 assists with 73 putouts while being a part of 21 double-plays turned by the Catamounts.
 
White finished the 2023 regular season with a perfect 5-0 record on the mound over his 21 appearances, the third-most for the Catamounts. His five seasonal wins tied him with seven others for fifth in the SoCon regular season. He carries a 3.86 ERA over 30.1 combined innings with 15 strikeouts against 19 walks into postseason play this week. The Randleman, N.C., product limited opponents to a .261 batting average with just 11 of the 29 hits he surrendered going for extra bases. Among his 21 appearances on the season, the rookie recorded at least one inning of work 16 times with at least one strikeout in 12 of his trips to the mound.
 
White made his collegiate debut during the 2023 Opening Weekend against Akron. He secured his first collegiate victory out of the bullpen in a win over Radford on March 18, limiting the Highlanders to just two base runners on a single and a walk over three innings of shutout relief. In his first collegiate start in the midweek against USC Upstate – the regular-season runner-up in the Big South Conference – White tossed three shutout innings, scattering three hits and a pair of HBP as the Catamounts throttled the Spartans 13-1 for his second career win.
 
White also picked up victories in three of his final five relief efforts of the regular season, posting W's at home against UNC Asheville (May 3), at regular-season SoCon champion Samford (May 7), and in the home finale against The Citadel (May 14).
 
All eight Southern Conference teams had representation on the two all-conference teams released Tuesday, with seven earning a first-team selection. VMI led all schools with six selections on the coaches' all-conference team, followed by Wofford (5), Samford (4), ETSU, and Mercer (3), with WCU, UNCG, and The Citadel with one selection apiece. Each SoCon team landed a player on the coaches' all-freshman team with four posting multiple selections including three from Wofford with UNCG, Samford, and VMI each tallying to honorees.
 
On the 25-member media all-conference team, Mercer and Wofford both had five selections apiece with ETSU and VMI landing four honorees. Regular-season champion Samford had three players recognized, followed by The Citadel (2), with UNCG and WCU both with one selection.
 
Wofford first baseman Ryan Galanie was chosen as the SoCon Player of the Year, with Samford's Jacob Cravey and head coach Tony David dubbed the SoCon Pitcher and Coach of the Year in both sets of postseason awards. The league's head coaches selected Samford outfielder Lucas Steele as its Freshman of the Year with his rookie teammate infielder Jayden Davis collecting the top freshman honor from the voting media.
 
Wednesday's WCU-UNCG game will be broadcast on ESPN+ (paid subscription required) with live stats and free audio from the Catamount Sports Network available online at CatamountSports.com.
 
The Catamount Club will host a special Catamount Central gathering at Mac's Speed Shop (930 S. Main Street; Greenville, S.C., 29601) ahead of each game WCU plays in the SoCon tournament. The pregame social is scheduled for two hours before the scheduled first pitch of each game, beginning at 5 p.m., on Wednesday before the WCU-UNCG opening-round match-up.
 
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). 
 

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