CULLOWHEE, N.C. – Western Carolina softball begins its third five-game road swing in under a month with a trip to Spartanburg to battle first-year program Wofford from Hope Field in a three-game Southern Conference series that begins Saturday with a 1 p.m. doubleheader. The series wraps up with a 1 p.m. start on Sunday to close out the weekend series.
Coverage of all three games with the Terriers is available on ESPN+ (paid subscription required) and with live stats through CatamountSports.com.
GAMEDAY CENTRAL
WHAT: Western Carolina (12-21, 3-6 SoCon) at Wofford (14-17, 4-5 SoCon)
WHERE: Hope Field (Spartanburg, S.C.)
WHEN: 1:00 p.m. (Saturday DH) | 1:00 p.m. (Sunday)
LIVE STATS: Sidearm Stats (All 3 Games)
LIVE VIDEO: ESPN+ (Sat. G1) | ESPN+ (Sat. G2) | ESPN+ (Sun.)
TWITTER: @CatamountSB
GAME NOTES
Western Carolina returns to the road on Saturday following a 6-4 home setback on Wednesday to Big South leader USC Upstate at the Catamount Softball Complex. Senior Savannah Baldwin and freshman Maya McPherson both homered in the defeat.
Four Catamount regulars are batting over .300 entering the weekend with Lily Bell hitting a team-best .381 with 43 hits and 24 runs scored. Bell is third in the conference in average, tied for fifth in hits, and is also the conference leader with 20 stolen bases. The Woodstock, Ga. native has recorded a team-high 13 multi-hit games including hits in her last six games.
Mattie Mentel (.329), Tessa Juett (.310), and Savannah Baldwin each hold plus-.300 averages. Baldwin sits in a tie for sixth with eight doubles as the senior left fielder has nine multi-hit games and has tallied multiple RBIs in a team-best eight games. Baldwin also leads the team with 27 RBIs, which ranks her in a tie for sixth in the SoCon.
In WCU's first nine conference games, Kennedy Stewman is pacing the squad with a .375 batting average. The Sylva native has nine hits and three runs scored thus far. Baldwin begins the weekend with a .321 average and is tied with Stewman with nine hits and driving in four runs. Jeralynn Wells is the long Catamount to have multiple conference homers with a pair for the Menifee, Calif. native.
In the circle, Juett enters the weekend ranked second in the league with 96 strikeouts and is also in the runner-up spot with nine complete games for WCU. She maintains her runner-up spot in victories throughout 2024 with nine wins, as only Taylor Long from Chattanooga has more with 11 wins and 104 strikeouts.
Wofford comes into the weekend with a 14-17 record including a 4-5 mark in its opening three weekends of SoCon play. The Terriers fell in midweek action by the score of 6-1 to Winthrop. In league play thus far, Wofford has a win on the road at Mercer and a home victory over Samford before taking two of three from Chattanooga in its most recent SoCon play.
The Terriers are led offensively by Havalynn Abernathy with a .290 average, collecting three doubles, a triple, and a home run. Megan Towery sits at .283 with 17 hits and 12 homers, while Hope Ingle leads Wofford with 16 RBIs. Desirae Devine checks in with the team lead of 12 stolen bases. Wofford is hitting a SoCon-low .224 at the plate this season – but has bumped that number to .254 in nine league games thus far.
Wofford comes in with the third-best team ERA in the SoCon at 3.28, led by sophomore Margaret Axelson who is 4-5 with a 2.70 ERA in 17 games with 10 starts. Abby Greenwood is 5-10 but carries a 2.85 ERA in a team-high 21 outings and 12 starts coming into the weekend, recording a team-high 41 strikeouts in 91 innings. Tayven Stephenson is 4-1 with a 3.07 ERA in 10 appearances.
The Terriers are led by Chelsea Butler, who's in her first year as a head coach at the Division I level. She's spent time as an assistant coach, primarily as a pitching coach at Maryland, Incarnate Word, Presbyterian, Temple, and Utah State.
Following Sunday's action in Spartanburg, the Catamounts continue a road-heavy portion of their schedule with a trip to Boiling Springs for a doubleheader with Gardner-Webb scheduled for 3 p.m. on Tuesday, April 16, from Brinkley Softball Stadium. Both contests will be shown on ESPN+ (paid subscription required) and have live stats available at CatamountSports.com.
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