Cullowhee, N.C. – Western Carolina baseball opens the home portion of its 2025 schedule on Tuesday afternoon with the first of four-straight home games as the Catamounts host USC Upstate in the front of a nonconference home-and-home with the Spartans.
 
The first pitch of Tuesday's home opener at Childress Field / Hennon Stadium is scheduled for 4 p.m. The game is scheduled to be broadcast on ESPN+ (paid subscription required) and live stats are available online through links at CatamountSports.com.


The Catamounts and Spartans meet for the third time in the last four seasons to open their respective midweek schedules. Tuesday marks the first of two meetings over the next eight days with the return bout slated for next Wednesday, Feb. 26, at Upstate's Harley Park in Spartanburg, S.C.
  
Projected Pitching Matchup:
Tuesday (4 p.m.): WCU – Soph, RHP #19 Josh Ossiander vs. Upstate – Jr., RHP #14 Landon Sexton

Game Day Weather Forecast – Cullowhee (As of Feb. 17):
Tuesday – Intervals of sun and clouds; High near 51, Low 32
* Check CatamountSports.com and social media through TwitterX (@CatamountBSB) for any weather-related schedule changes.

About Western Carolina:
The Catamounts return home seeking their first victory of 2025 after dropping all three games of their season-opening weekend series at Georgia Southern, which was picked fifth in the highly competitive Sun Belt Conference preseason voting. WCU outhit the Eagles 23-to-21 over the three-game set with a .242 team batting average.
 
Five Catamounts hit .300 overall on the weekend with junior transfer Brayden Corn and returning junior Hayden Friese both collecting a team-best four hits with a double. Corn is batting .364 with a pair of stolen bases while Friese has a .308 average and a team-best three-game hitting streak. Coupled with finishing 2024 with a nine-game reached base safely streak, Friese has a team-long 12-game streak intact entering the home portion of the schedule this week.
 
Senior Mason Holton successfully reached to lead off each of the three games over the weekend, singling twice and drawing a walk to open the year in his first plate appearance. Redshirt junior Cole Jones had quite the return from injury that sidelined him just 11 games into the 2024 season, doubling as part of a 3-for-4 performance on Friday. He also reached twice with a walk and an HBP in Saturday's loss.
 
Making his first career start on Sunday, freshman infielder Jaylen Jones had quite the debut for the Purple & Gold. Finishing 1-for-4 officially, the Loganville, Ga., product drove home a team-best three runs with a run-scoring ground out and a two-run, bases-loaded single into right-center coming on his first collegiate base knock. He also flashed the leather with a diving stop and throw to record an out.
 
Despite the offensive success at the plate, WCU struggled with runners aboard in the three-game set in Statesboro, stranding 21 runners on base. The Catamounts were just 3-of-22 (.136) with runners in scoring position with just one two-out RBI. Conversely, the Eagles batted .308 (8-of-26) with runners in scoring position and collected 13 two-out RBI.
 
Western Carolina – Active Offensive Streaks:
 
Hitting Streaks:
Hayden Friese – 4 games (including one game last season)
Mason Holton – 2 games
 
Reached Base Safely:
Hayden Friese – 12 games (including nine-straight games last season)
Mason Holton – 3 games
Trey Spees – 3 games
 
Scouting the Opponent – USC Upstate:
With weather washing out last Saturday's game two against ACC-foe Boston College, the Spartans finished with an even split with the Eagles. USC Upstate claimed its season-opener 10-7 before dropping the finale 11-9 at home at Harley Park.
 
Through the first two games of 2025, USC Upstate is batting .290 collectively as a team with four players boasting batting averages over the .400 threshold. Among the team's 20 hits over the two games were 13 for extra bases including five doubles, a triple, and seven home runs. The Spartans surrendered 12 stolen bases to the Eagles as BC went 12-of-13 on the base paths on Opening Weekend.
 
Upstate's Vance Sheahan and Alex Ritzer hit .444 to open the season, recording matching 4-of-9 performances over the weekend. Sheahan doubled twice with a home run and two RBI, while Ritzer collected three RBI with a triple and a homer. Transfer Scott Newman – who like WCU's Cole Jones began his career at Parkland College before transferring from Wichita State – and redshirt junior Jake Armsey finished 3-for-7 (.429). All three of Armsey's hits went for extra bases including two doubles and a home run.
 
The Spartan pitchers struck out 19 against 10 walks while surrendering 18 runs on 21 hits including five doubles and four home runs.
 
Third in the final 2024 standings, USC Upstate was picked second out of nine teams in the 2025 preseason Big South Conference coaches' poll, receiving a pair of first-place votes. The Spartans trailed just defending tournament champion High Point in the voting. Upstate landed three players on the preseason All-Big South Conference team including Sheahan as an infielder and relief pitchers in sophomore Cooper Ellingworth and junior Braden Consaul.

Western Carolina vs. USC Upstate – The Series:
The Catamounts and Spartans have met in nonconference home-and-home action in each of the last three seasons with seven meetings since 2020. WCU is 3-4 over those seven meetings but leads the all-time series 9-6 including eight meetings in the 1980s. Upstate swept the two meetings a year ago with a 16-9 victory in the first midweek game between the two teams in February of 2024 and a 13-7 decision in Cullowhee last May.
 
WCU carries a slim 4-3 lead in games played in Cullowhee but has dropped two of the last three at Childress Field / Hennon Stadium since Upstate went D-I in 2004. The 2023 meeting was decided in 13 innings despite the heroics of Pascanel Ferreras who tied the game with a two-out grand slam home run in the ninth inning before the Spartans outlasted the home squad.
 
The all-time series between the two dates to 1986 with the first of eight meetings over the next four seasons through 1989. The Catamounts won six of the first eight games against then USC Spartanburg as a Division II team including six straight Catamount victories. The series lay dormant until being rekindled in 2020 with a 5-2 Catamount victory in Spartanburg.
 
Returning from Last Year's Meetings:
Catamount hitters Trent Turner and Hayden Friese both collected three hits apiece in the two meetings with Upstate last season, Friese doing so in just one game played as he reached base four times with a 3-for-4 effort with a double and a walk. Turner was 3-for-5 in Spartanburg last year. Mason Holton returns with a lead-off home run in the Cullowhee meeting.
 
Upstate's top two returners from a year ago in the series against the Catamounts are Vance Sheahan who was 1-for-7 with a double and Jake Armsey who went hitless in eight trips with a pair of walks and three strikeouts.
 
On Deck for the Catamounts:
Western Carolina concludes its four-game homestand with its first weekend three-game series, hosting Big Ten foe Maryland in nonconference action on Feb. 21-23. It's the first trip for the Terrapins to Cullowhee and the first three-game set between the two. The only other meeting came in tournament action at East Carolina back in 2012 at the Keith LeClair Classic, a 3-0 win for the Terps in Greenville, N.C.
 
Both season and single-game tickets for WCU's 26-game home baseball slate at Childress Field / Hennon Stadium are on sale now and start at just $51 for adult general admission and $26 for youth general admission. Additional seating options include reserved field-level chair back seats and upper-reserved chair backs under cover beneath the press box.
 
Tickets can be purchased in person through the first-floor Athletics Ticket Office in the Ramsey Center, by phone at (828) 227-2401, or online at CatamountSports.com/BuyTickets.
 
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).