Cullowhee, N.C. – Western Carolina baseball closes a road-heavy portion of its regular-season schedule this weekend, traveling to Birmingham, Ala., to face the Samford Bulldogs in a three-game Southern Conference series at Joe Lee Griffin Field. The series opens Friday at 5 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. CT, and continues Saturday at 3 p.m. / 2 p.m., before concluding Sunday at 2 p.m. ET / 1 p.m. CT.
Each game is scheduled to be broadcast on ESPN+ (paid subscription required) with live stats through StatBroadcast available online
via links at CatamountSports.com.
Western Carolina snapped a two-game slide by completing the two-game midweek series sweep of mountain-rival UNC Asheville with a 19-7 win Wednesday evening at Childress Field / Hennon Stadium. It was WCU's highest-scoring output of the season. Sophomore
Brandon Butterworth led the Catamounts with a career-high four hits while
Pascanel Ferreras and
Zach Ketterman both drove in four runs in the victory.
WCU has dropped five of its last six road games, going 1-2 at ETSU last weekend after dropping three in nonconference play at the College of Charleston the previous weekend.
Entering the weekend, three Catamounts have hit double-digit home runs this season paced by
Nate Stocum with 11 with both Ferreras and
James Hinson having hit 10 apiece. Ferreras is tied for eighth with 44 RBI while Butterworth paces the conference with six triples – tied for the second-most in program history and just one shy of matching Tracy Biggs (7 in 1999).
Cole Jones is batting a team-best .439 in SoCon play, seventh-best in the conference-only rankings.
WCU looks for its first SoCon series win since taking two of three from Mercer from March 31-April 2. The Catamounts have dropped four of their five SoCon series this season overall. The Catamounts have won at least one league game in every series except for VMI which saw the series shortened to just two games due to weather. Three of WCU's nine conference losses have come in one-run games with two going to extra innings.
Junior transfer RHP
Jonathan Todd is scheduled to start Friday's game with left-hander
Kyle Riesselmann slated as Saturday's starting pitcher. Todd is coming off a season-long, 5.2-inning start last week at ETSU where he struck out his WCU-best seven. The Reidsville, N.C., product leads WCU with 33 strikeouts, one more than Riesselmann and
Nick Torres.
About the Samford Bulldogs:
Samford is 25-20 overall and 10-5 in SoCon play. The Bulldogs return home for the first time since April 16 having played its last nine games away from home, posting a 4-5 record. Samford dropped 2-of-3 at Wofford before winning the series at VMI including a 9-7 win in 11 innings in game two.
Freshman Jayden Davis is riding a team-best 28-game hitting streak, one hit shy of matching Samford's program record. John Anderson hit five home runs last week, finishing with a .444 average and 15 RBI on the way to being named SoCon Player of the Week and one of Collegiate Baseball's National Players of the Week.
The Bulldogs are batting .280 collectively as a team – eighth overall in the league rankings – but are hitting .317 in SoCon play, the third-best team average. Samford leads the conference with 37 home runs and 37 doubles in conference play while ranking second in both categories overall with 85 seasonal doubles and 70 total home runs.
Samford's Friday starter Jacob Cravey leads the SoCon with 86 strikeouts including a league-best 37 looking. He is second in the SoCon in batting average against, limiting the opposition to a .213 batting average.
Western Carolina vs. Samford – The Series:
The Catamounts and Bulldogs have met 50 times on the baseball diamond in a series that dates to 2009 with Samford enjoying a three-game series win streak. WCU trails in the head-to-head series 21-28 including just a 5-13 road record in Birmingham, Ala. In a scheduling anomaly – and partially because of the COVID-19 pandemic – this weekend's meetings at Samford are the first since 2019 as the last 10 meetings have been played between Cullowhee (6) and Fluor Field (4) in Greenville, S.C.
On Deck for Western Carolina:
The Catamounts return to the friendly confines of Childress Field / Hennon Stadium for the final four home dates of the 2023 regular season beginning with a midweek return matchup against Presbyterian on Tuesday, May 9. WCU then hosts The Citadel May 12-14 in league play with the Saturday match-up featuring
"Whee Love Canton Day," with free ticket vouchers available for fans at Ingles locations in Haywood County and the Canton branch of Champion Credit Union.
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 (17-26, 5-9 SoCon) at Samford (25-20, 10-5 SoCon)
Fri., May 5 | 5 pm ET / 4 pm CT |
Coverage: ESPN+ |
LiveStats
Projected Pitching Match-up:
WCU – Jr. RHP
Jonathan Todd (2-2, 8.33 ERA; 12 app., 5 GS, 33K, 19BB)
SAM – Jr. RHP Jacob Cravey (7-2, 3.69 ERA; 11 app., 11 GS, 86K, 29BB)
Sat., May 6 | 3 pm ET / 2 pm CT |
Coverage: ESPN+ |
LiveStats
Projected Pitching Match-up:
WCU – Jr. LHP
Kyle Riesselmann (1-3, 8.05 ERA; 10 app., 9 GS, 32K, 11BB)
SAM – Jr. RHP Brody Westbrooks (3-2, 5.16 ERA; 12 app., 10 GS, 54K, 19BB)
Sun., May 7 | 2 pm ET / 1 pm CT |
Coverage: ESPN+ |
LiveStats
Projected Pitching Match-up:
WCU – TBD
SAM – Soph. RHP Will Lynch (3-3, 5.06 ERA; 11 app., 11 GS, 50K, 29BB)
