Cullowhee, N.C. – Western Carolina baseball plays its first home weekend series of 2025 at Childress Field / Hennon Stadium as Big Ten foe Maryland provides the opposition for a three-game series opening Friday afternoon and continuing through Sunday.
The series opens Friday with an updated 3 p.m. first pitch with Saturday's game scheduled for a 2 p.m. start ahead of Sunday's 1 p.m. series finale. Each game is scheduled to be broadcast on ESPN+ (
paid subscription required), with links to
live stats available online at CatamountSports.com.
Maryland marks the first Power Four conference opponent to come to Childress Field / Hennon Stadium since SEC-foe Tennessee and Wake Forest out of the ACC came to Cullowhee during the 2021 season. The Terps mark the first Big Ten opponent to visit Jackson County since the Catamounts took 2-of-3 from Purdue to open the home schedule in 2015.
Tickets for Catamount baseball 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.
Projected Pitching Matchups:
Friday: WCU – Jr. RHP
Dusty Revis (0-1, 9.00) vs. UMD – R-So. LHP Kyle McCoy (1-0, 2.25)
Saturday: WCU – Sr. RHP
Mason Holton (0-1, 6.75) vs. UMD – So. RHP Joey McMannis (0-0, 0.00)
Sunday: WCU – Jr. LHP
Davis Wright (0-0, 5.40) vs. UMD – Sr. LHP Omar Melendez (0-1, 9.00)
About Western Carolina:
WCU (1-3) earned its first victory of the year in its midweek home opener on Tuesday night, riding a pair of three-run frames in the middle innings to grab a 9-3 lead over USC Upstate before holding the Spartans off for a 10-7 triumph. That came after dropping its three-game road series at Georgia Southern on Opening Weekend, leading in Sunday's finale before the Eagles rallied to complete the sweep.
Four games deep into the 2025 season, a trio of newcomers are pacing the Catamount offense. Freshmen
Jaylen Jones (.500) and
Trey Spees (.400) pace the squad with average, both with four hits apiece while newcomer
Brayden Corn (.375) and returner
Hayden Friese (.353) lead the team with six hits. Jones has a team-best three extra-base hits – each coming against USC Upstate with a pair of doubles and a triple – and paces WCU with six RBI.
The Catamounts have just one home run through their first four games coming in the home-opener on Tuesday as
Mason Holton belted a lead-off round-tripper in the home half of the first inning.
On the mound, Catamount pitching has managed 35 strikeouts spread between 16 different pitchers as WCU has gone deep into the bullpen through the first week-plus of the season with 18 arms going to the hill entering the weekend. It has been by design of head coach
Alan Beck and pitching coach
Dusty White not to tax any one pitcher too much.
Davis Wright has a team-best five K's coming in his WCU debut in Sunday's series finale, while
Josh Ossiander fanned four in his pitching debut in the starting role in earning Tuesday's win.
Western Carolina – Active Offensive Streaks:
Hitting Streaks:
Hayden Friese – 5 games (
including one game last season)
Mason Holton – 3 games
Jaylen Jones – 2 games
Reached Base Safely:
Hayden Friese – 13 games (
including nine-straight games last season)
Mason Holton,
Trey Spees – 4 games
Jaylen Jones,
Trent Turner,
Noah Quarless,
Josh Ossiander – 2 games
About the Maryland Terrapins:
Maryland (2-1) opened the season in tournament play in Charleston, S.C., at the Shipyard Fields, bookending the weekend with wins. The Terps used a six-run fourth inning that included a grand slam homer to down UAB, 6-3, to open the season. Ball State downed Maryland in game two before the Terrapins pummeled winless Mercyhurst 19-1 thanks to five multi-run innings.
Before coming to Cullowhee, Maryland had its midweek game against Delaware pushed back a week to Feb. 25.
Thanks to a season-high 14 hits against Mercyhurst, Maryland is batting .255 collectively as a team with 11 extra-base hits including five doubles and six home runs. The Terps are averaging just over nine runs per game while limiting the opposition to just three runs on a .191 batting average. Of the 18 hits surrendered by Maryland pitchers, only four have gone for extra bases – two doubles, a triple and a homer.
The Terrapins return two players from the postseason All-Big Ten teams from a season ago including first-team selection in senior third-baseman Eddie Hacopian and second-team honoree in sophomore shortstop Chris Hacopian. The legacy brothers were joined on the Big Ten's "Players to Watch" list by sophomore left-hander Kyle McCoy, who was a 2023 Big Ten Freshman team selection but missed last season due to injury.
Maryland also brought in seven transfers to add depth to its lineup including 20-homerun hitter Hollis Porter (Pearl River CC) and outfielder Aden Hill (VCU) who won an Atlantic-10 championship last season for head coach Bradley LeCroy, a former WCU assistant coach. Four Division I pitching transfers also bolster the pitching staff.
Maryland finished 2024 with a 34-22 overall record in the first year under head coach Matt Swope, a 2003 graduate who had a solid career in College Park where he was a .331 career hitter and finished his time on six of the Terps' career charts.
Western Carolina vs. Maryland – The Series:
WCU and Maryland have met just once previously on the baseball diamond – a 3-0 win by the Terps back in 2012 in tournament action at the Keith LeClair Classic in Greenville, N.C. The Catamounts committed three costly errors in the neutral field loss with Maryland scoring two unearned runs in the second inning and an insurance marker in the ninth.
Western Carolina vs. the Big Ten Conference:
WCU has played 10 of the 17 teams now in the Big Ten with one other – Michigan State – on the schedule this year with a neutral field meeting at Fluor Field in Greenville, S.C., slated for March 5. The Catamounts hold a 22-21 record all-time against baseball teams currently in the Big Ten Conference including a 2-1 record against Southern California (USC) when the Trojans were in the Pac-12. Another notable meeting came against Nebraska in the 2016 NCAA Clemson Regional, with the two squads meeting in Lincoln the following season.
On Deck for the Catamounts:
Western Carolina travels to Spartanburg, S.C., next Wednesday, Feb. 26, for the backend of the nonconference home-and-home with USC Upstate. First pitch between the Catamounts and Spartans is scheduled for 3 p.m., at Harley Park. WCU then returns home for a four-game weekend series against Rider to close February and open March. It's the first meeting between WCU and Rider since 2014, a three-game series sweep for the Catamounts over the Broncs where the Purple & Gold outscored the opposition 40-to-16.
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).
