Cullowhee, N.C. – Coming off a dramatic series win over Big Ten foe Maryland, Western Carolina plays the backend of its nonconference home-and-home with USC Upstate on Wednesday afternoon at Harley Park in Spartanburg, S.C. The first pitch of the return bout is scheduled for 3 p.m.
 
Live stats coverage of Wednesday game is available through the following link: CLICK HERE.
 
Western Carolina (3-4) bookended last weekend with come-from-behind victories to knock off the Terrapins at Childress Field / Hennon Stadium, rallying with a five-run seventh to claim the series opener 8-7 before recovering a late lead in extra -innings on a walk-off three-run home run by Elijah Smith, his first career round-tripper.
 
USC Upstate (3-3) halted a three-game winless drought that included the road defeat in Cullowhee last Tuesday by taking 2-of-3 over the weekend, defeating Le Moyne (6-1) and Bowling Green (9-2) on Saturday and Sunday.
 
Projected Pitching Match-up:
WCU – Sr. RHP Evan Langston (2 app., 3.1 IP, 0-0, 13.50 ERA 4 BB)
Upstate – Fr. RHP Cayden Mackey (1 app., 1.0 IP, 0-0, 0.00 ERA, 2 BB)
 
Game Day Weather Forecast – Spartanburg, S.C. (As of Feb. 25):
Wednesday – Sunny skies, warm. High around 75, winds SW at 5 to 10 mph.
 
About Western Carolina (3-4):
Coming off a weekend series victory that saw WCU plate 31 runs on 40 base hits including 12 for extra bases – eight doubles and four home runs – the Catamounts enter the week batting .305 collectively on the season, third in the SoCon. The Purple & Gold lead the SoCon with 17 doubles and are third with 110 total bases – one of four SoCon teams to crest the century mark entering the third week of the regular season.
 
Five Catamount regulars are batting above the .300 threshold, paced by true freshman Trey Spees at .429 (9-of-21), sixth-best in the SoCon. He's trailed by junior Hayden Friese at .400 (12-of-30), with a team-best two home runs. Also hitting above .300 are freshman Jaylen Jones (.444, 4-of-9) with three extra-base hits), redshirt freshman Wyatt Stanley (.389, 7-of-18) and junior transfer outfield Brayden Corn (.393, 11-of-28).
 
Trent Turner is hitting .290 with a team-best seven RBI, while Elijah Smith has three hits in 11 trips (.273) with six runs driven in. Mason Holton, who homered against Upstate in the first meeting, is batting .276 (8-of-29).
 
WCU is averaging 6.9 runs per game through its first seven while allowing an average of 12 – a number skewed by Maryland's big Saturday number. Not including last Saturday, the Catamounts have averaged allowing 7.8 runs over the six remaining games.
 
Active Hitting Streaks:
7 games – Hayden Friese
4 games – Brayden Corn, Trey Spees, Wyatt Stanley
3 games – Cole Jones, Jack Spyke, Trent Turner
2 games – Mason Holton, Elijah Smith
 
Longest Active Reached Base Safely Streaks:
16 games – Hayden Friese (includes a nine-game RBS streak to end 2024)
7 games – Trey Spees
5 games – Trent Turner
4 games – Brayden Corn, Wyatt Stanley
3 games – Cole Jones, Jack Spyke
 
Scouting the Opponent – USC Upstate (3-3):
Last Tuesday's loss to Western Carolina was the second in a string of three-consecutive defeats for the Spartans. USC Upstate finished third in last year's Big South standings and was picked second in this year's preseason coaches' poll, receiving a pair of first-place votes to trail only High Point.
 
Upstate is batting .294 collectively as a team with 24 of the squad's 60 base hits on the season going for extra bases including 11 doubles, a triple, and 12 home runs. Through six games, the Spartans are averaging 7.2 runs per game while surrendering just six with opponents hitting .242 over that same stretch.
 
Three Spartan regulars are batting above the .300 threshold led by preseason All-Big South Conference selection, infielder Vance Sheahan (14-of-28, .500) who has four doubles and a home run with five RBI. Two pitchers – Cooper Ellingworth and Braden Consaul – joined Sheahan on the preseason All-Big South squad. Cayden Wotipka (6-of-14, .429) and Alex Ritzer (8-of-24, .333) are also hitting north of .300 early in the season.
 
Last Time We Met – Western Carolina 10, USC Upstate 7:
Western Carolina claimed its home opener over USC Upstate, scoring six runs in the middle third on a pair of three-run innings in the fourth and sixth to snap the two-game series slide with a 10-7 victory at Childress Field / Hennon Stadium.
 
Mason Holton homered in a 2-for-4 effort, while Brayden Corn (2-for-5) and Trey Spees (2-for-4) both doubled and Hayden Friese singled twice – but the night belonged to true freshman Jalen Jones who doubled twice and tripled in a 3-for-4 effort in his home debut.  Jones plated three runs and helped turn a double play in the field at second base.
 
Combined, seven of WCU's 13 hits went for extra bases in making Josh Ossiander (1-0) a winner on the mound in his first start after tossing a scheduled career-long three-inning start, striking out four.
 
Vance Sheahan matched Jones with a 3-for-4 performance with a double and Wylie Waters reached three times with a pair of singles and an HBP to pace the Spartans who finished with 10 combined hits. Landon Sexton was tagged with the loss after surrendering six runs on six hits with two Ks over 3.2 innings.
 
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 eight meetings since 2020. After last week's win, the Division I series stands at 4-4 since Upstate made the move in 2004.
 
WCU leads the all-time series 10-6 when including eight meetings from the 1980s. The two schools first met in 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.
 
The series is even at 5-3 for WCU in both home and road games after snapping a two-game home slide last week. The 2023 meeting stands as the lone extra-inning affair between the two and 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.
 
WCU looks to duplicate what Update accomplished a year ago by sweeping both ends of the nonconference home-and-home. The Spartans won the two meetings a year ago with a 16-9 victory in February and a 13-7 decision in Cullowhee last May.

On Deck for the Catamounts:
Western Carolina returns home this weekend for a four-game series against Rider University out of Lawrenceville, N.J., and the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC). The Broncs are a four-time MAAC champion (2008, 2010, 2021, 2023) and won three Northeast Conference (NEC) championships in the mid-1990s.
 
Rider comes to town for just its second weekend series of the year after taking 2-of-3 from Campbell in Buies Creek last weekend. The Broncs landed three players on the Preseason All-MAAC team and were picked second in the conference behind favorite Fairfield. Rider represents the second preseason runner-up pick on WCU's schedule as USC Upstate was also picked second in the Big South preseason polling.
 
The four-game weekend series opens at 4 p.m. on Friday with a Noon doubleheader on Saturday ahead of a 1 p.m. first pitch in the finale on Sunday at Childress Field /  Hennon Stadium.
 
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).