Cullowhee, N.C. – Western Carolina baseball returns home for the first time in 10 days on Wednesday evening, stepping out of conference to host the Big South Conference preseason favorite USC Upstate Spartans with a 5 p.m. first pitch at Childress Field / Hennon Stadium. The Catamounts and Spartans meet in the backend of a nonconference home-and-home to complete the two-game regular-season series.
 
Wednesday's game will be broadcast locally across western North Carolina and the Upstate of South Carolina on The CW62 (Greenville – Spartanburg – Anderson – Asheville) and simulcast on ESPN+ (paid subscription required). Live stats are available online through CatamountSports.com.
 
Upstate won the first meeting between the two squads back in late February, capitalizing on multiple freebies including three WCU fielding errors, five walks, and four hit batters by Catamount pitching, and rode six multi-run innings in upending the Purple & Gold, 16-9, at Harley Park in Spartanburg, S.C. Nine of the Spartans' 16 hits went for extra bases with WCU lighting the scoreboard nine times on 14 hits in the loss.
 
Trent Turner paced the Catamount offense in what was WCU's first road game of the season, reaching base four times in a 3-for-5 effort with Hayden Friese (3-for-4) doubling as part of a three-hit outing. Nate Stocum (2-for-6) collected a pair of singles with Kyle Harbison, James Hinson, and Kyle Riesselmann each finishing with two RBI.
 
Four Spartans collected multiple hits with first-baseman Grant Sherrod finishing 5-for-6 with a pair of doubles, scoring three times with a pair of RBI.  Jace Rinehart homered twice in a 2-for-5 performance with a game-high four RBI, while Troy Hamilton drove home three, two coming on his one hit of the day with a first-inning, two-run home run. Daniel Gernon reached base six times in Upstate's win, finishing 3-for-3 with a pair of walks and an HBP.
 
About Western Carolina (23-18):
Western Carolina returns to the friendly confines of Childress Field / Hennon Stadium following a big Southern Conference series road win over then-second-place Wofford, snapping a three-game slide with consecutive weekend victories in Spartanburg. The Catamounts have won five of their last nine games overall entering the month of May.
 
Batting .291 collectively as a team, the Catamounts have five regulars batting over the .300 threshold led by the resurgence of senior infielder Zach Ketterman. The Biglerville, Pa., product raised his seasonal batting average by 100 points during April to pace the squad with a .350 seasonal average. Of Ketterman's 27 hits in the month, 16 went for extra bases including nine home runs, five doubles, and a pair of triples while driving home 26 of his 39 seasonal RBI.
 
Ketterman is flanked by classmate Nate Stocum with a .325 average that includes 31 extra-base hits – 14 doubles and a career-best 17 home runs, second in the SoCon to bolster his .724 slugging percentage. The Catamount senior duo is joined by Mason Holton (.320), Hayden Friese (.314), and Trent Turner (.304) among the team leaders with Jack Spyke (.294) just below the benchmark.
 
 
As a team, WCU leads the SoCon with 101 doubles and is currently second in the conference with a combined 66 home runs. The Catamounts enter the week averaging 7.8 runs coming on 10.1 hits per game to date while surrendering an average of 7.3 runs on 9.3 hits per contest. Catamount pitchers have combined for 309 total strikeouts.
 
Defensively, WCU continues to pace the SoCon with 43 double plays turned this season – tied for eighth nationally by number and fourth with a 1.05 per game average. Turner has been a part of turning a SoCon-leading 33 double-plays with Ketterman and Jack Spyke tied for second with 25 apiece. Kyle Harbison leads the conference by throwing out 10 would-be base stealers.
 
WCU's Active Hitting Streaks:
Nate Stocum – 16 games
Zach Ketterman – 3 games
Mason Holton – 3 games
 
WCU's Active Reached Base Safely Streaks:
Nate Stocum – 16 games
Zach Ketterman – 15 games
Drew Needham – 6 games
Jack Spyke – 3 games
Hayden Friese – 3 games
Mason Holton – 3 games
 
Catamounts in the National Rankings:
Doubles – 101 – 15th-t (1st in SoCon)
Double-Plays – 43 – 8th (1st in SoCon)
Double-Plays Per Game – 1.05 – 4th
 
Jonathan Todd – Saves – 7 – 19th-t (2nd in SoCon)
Nate Stocum – Home Runs – 17 – 28th-t (2nd in SoCon)
Kyle Riesselmann – Sacrifice Bunts – 8 – 26th-t (2nd in SoCon)
 
About USC Upstate (28-16):
The Spartans come to Cullowhee after dropping a league series at Presbyterian last weekend, suffering both a one-run and two-run defeat against a two-run win on Saturday. All told USC Upstate has dropped three of its last four on the heels of a four-game win streak.
 
USC Upstate is batting an even .300 collectively as a team to lead the Big South Conference, also pacing its league with 83 home runs – tied for 11th nationally. Upstate has scored a conference-best 366 runs and ranks tied for 39th in the NCAA with an 8.3 run-per-game average. Five Spartan starters are hitting above the .300 threshold led by Jace Rinehart with a .378 average. He has 33 extra-base hits including 18 doubles, three triples, and 12 home runs. Koby Kropf (.364) has 29 hits for extra bases including a team-best 16 homers with 58 RBI, followed by Noah Sullivan (.338, 15 HRs), Vance Sheahan (.315), and Grant Sherrod (.306) with 10 home runs and 57 RBI. Kropf has earned consecutive Big South Player of the Week honors giving the Spartans three-straight weekly awards as Sullivan was honored back on April 15.
 
USC Upstate landed seven players on the Preseason All-Big South Conference team in the preseason including four position players and three pitchers. Redshirt senior outfielder Daniel Gernon (.287) was joined by Sherrod, Rinehart Jr., and Sullivan in representing the Spartans position players. Those four were joined by starting pitchers senior Mathieu Curtis and senior Henry Proger, and reliever Jake Cubbler as preseason all-conference selections with the latter finishing second in the voting for the Big South's preseason Pitcher of the Year award.
 
The runner-up in last year's Big South Conference regular season and tournament, USC Upstate was picked to win the 2024 conference championship this year, earning seven of the possible nine first-place votes from the league's head coaches. It's the first time the Spartans have garnered the top preseason nod on the baseball diamond.
 
Southern Conference vs. Big South Conference:
Teams from the two regional-rival conferences have met 38 times in the 2024 season with the SoCon carrying a 27-11 overall record. WCU holds a 4-1 record against teams from the Big South with three opportunities remaining including Wednesday's game. The Catamounts swept UNC Asheville and took the home-and-home opener at both Gardner-Webb and Presbyterian and will host both before the end of the regular season.
 
Wednesday's slate includes a pair of SoCon-Big South matchups with the Spartans visiting the Catamounts and Wofford hosting Winthrop in Spartanburg.
 
Western Carolina vs. USC Upstate – Series History:
The Catamounts and Spartans meet on the baseball diamond for the 15th time on Wednesday evening. Western Carolina has won nine of the 14 all-time series meetings (9-5)
 
The two teams split the midweek home-and-home series a year ago, both winning on the road. The Spartans outlasted WCU 9-8 in 13 innings on April 4 – a game tied in the ninth on a Pascanel Ferreras grand slam home run – before WCU throttled Upstate 13-1 in the return meeting on April 18. The Catamounts have won eight of the last 11 overall dating back to 1987.
 
USC Upstate at Western Carolina – Childress Field / Hennon Stadium
 
Tuesday, May | 5 p.m. | Cullowhee, N.C. | Coverage: The CW62 & ESPN+  |  LiveStats
UPSTATE: Soph. RHP Mathieu Curtis (12 app., 11 GS – 3-2, 50.2 IP, 6.57 ERA, 43 K, 14 BB)
WCU: Junior RHP Spenser Hamblen (10 app., 7 GS – 2-4, 27.2 IP, 9.76 ERA, 19 K, 22 BB)
 
A junior college transfer from Florence Darlington Tech where he won 12 games in 2023, Hamblen began the season as a weekend starter. Among his seven starts, the Suwanee, Ga., product has thrown 3+ innings six times including in his two victories – five innings with six strikeouts in his WCU debut against Iona and five innings with a pair of strikeouts against four walks in the neutral field win over Michigan State.
 
Curtis tossed a season-high seven innings against Canisius back in late February and has logged at least four innings on the mound in nine of his 12 appearances. He struck out seven in the win over Canisius, one-upping that with eight Ks over 5.2 innings at Winthrop.
 
On Deck for Western Carolina:
Following Wednesday's nonconference meeting with USC Upstate, Western Carolina again hits the road this weekend for a tough challenge against its second Atlantic Coast Conference team and its second nationally-ranked opponent. The Catamounts visit No. 13 Wake Forest in Winston-Salem, N.C., playing three games in two days beginning on Saturday night with a Sunday afternoon doubleheader. WCU has won five of the 13 previous all-time meetings with the Demon Deacons, trailing in the series 5-8 including three-straight losses dating back to 2015 – WCU's last series win came at Keeter Stadium in Shelby, N.C., in a 3-2 extra-inning victory.
 
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