Cullowhee, N.C. – Western Carolina baseball opens a five-game swing away from home on Wednesday night, traveling to Fluor Field at the West End in Greenville, S.C., to face a second Big Ten foe this season as the Catamounts battle the Michigan State Spartans. First pitch is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. from the home of the Boston Red Sox high-A affiliate Greenville Drive – and the site of the 2025 Southern Conference Baseball Championship, presented by Holston Gases.
Wednesday's game will be broadcast on ESPN+ (
paid subscription required) with live online streaming audio through the Catamount Sports Network online at CatamountSports.com. Live stats coverage from Michigan State is available through a
link at CatamountSports.com.
For the second time this season, Western Carolina (5-7) played a team picked as the preseason runner-up in its respective conference, evenly splitting the four-game series with the Rider Broncs, picked second in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC).
Michigan State (9-1) has won three-straight after having its season-opening, six-game winning streak snapped at the 2025 Kleberg Bank College Classic in Corpus Christi, Texas. The Spartans briefly moved into the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) media poll at No. 23 before falling out in the most recent tabulation despite an undefeated weekend, remaining among the others receiving votes. It was the first ranking for Michigan State since 2016.
Projected Pitching Matchups:
Wednesday – WCU – R-Fr. RHP
Kaden Fuller vs. MSU – Jr. RHP Ryan Szczepaniak
- Fuller (King, N.C.) expected to make his first career start having made three relief appearances to date … He struck out the side in his collegiate debut at Georgia Southern despite being saddled with two runs on one hit – a home run … Worked around two walks with a strikeout in two-thirds of an inning against USC Upstate … His most efficient outing of the year came in an inning and two-thirds of one-hit, scoreless relief against Rider.
Weather Forecast – Greenville, S.C. (As of March 4):
Wednesday – Becoming cloudy and windy after some morning rain; thunder possible. Winds SW at 20 to 30 mph. High of 63.
About Western Carolina (5-7):
WCU has split its last eight games with four wins and four losses, posting alternating results during that same span with two wins coming in run-ruled, seven-inning affairs. The Purple & Gold have won one weekend series (vs. Maryland, Big Ten) and one lost (at Georgia Southern, Sun Belt), and split the four-game series with Rider evenly.
The Catamounts raised their seasonal batting average 30 combined points over the four-game series against Rider. WCU enters the week ranked 10th nationally with a .343 batting average with 143 hits including 30 doubles (tied for 18th nationally), two triples, and 18 home runs (tied for 21st in the NCAA). WCU has 126 runs scored on 116 RBI, averaging 10.5 runs per game to rank 10th nationally entering the third week of the regular season.
WCU has nine regulars batting above the .300 threshold, paced by junior
Hayden Friese with a .426 average, fifth in the Southern Conference. He has a team-best 20 hits with six for extra bases including three doubles and three homers. Friese has a 12-game hitting streak and has reached base safely in 21-straight games, including nine in a row to close the 2024 season. Senior
Mason Holton –
who was named the SoCon Baseball Player of the Week on Monday – is just below the .400 plateau batting .396 with a team-best four home runs. Holton was named one of the NCAA's "Hitters of the Week" by 64 Analytics.
Lead-off man
Brayden Corn is hitting .391, followed by freshman
Trey Spees and
Elijah Smith at .375, senior
Trent Turner (.346),
Wyatt Stanley (.313), and
Noah Quarless (.308). thanks to a pair of grand slam homers this year, Smith paces WCU with 20 RBI – one of six already with double-digit runs knocked in. Sidelined the better part of weeks with an ankle injury, freshman
Jaylen Jones is batting .444 with four base hits – two doubles and a triple.
After leading the SoCon in double-plays a season ago, the Catamounts are at it again with 10 double-plays over 12 games, tied for 42nd nationally.
Hitting Double-Digits:
- Western Carolina has scored double-digit runs in seven of its 12 seasonal games this year, posting a 4-3 record in those outings … the Catamounts scored a season-high 27 runs in a seven-inning victory over Rider in last Friday's series opener;
- WCU has collected double-figure hits 10 times this season, including an active streak of nine-straight games with double-digit base knocks with a season-high of 17 vs. Rider;
- The Catamounts have collected multiple doubles in 10 games this season with three-or-more two-base hits six times, including a season-high five doubles in a home win over USC Upstate on Feb. 18;
- WCU has multiple home runs in five games with a season-best four in a losing effort against Rider (L, 16-15) in game one of a doubleheader last Saturday
- Catamount hitters have drawn double-digit walks three times to date – 11 against Maryland and 11 against Rider, with a season-high 17 free passes in game two of last Saturday's DH against Rider.
Catamount Active Hitting Streaks:
12 games –
Hayden Friese
8 games –
Trent Turner
7 games –
Mason Holton,
Elijah Smith
6 games –
Jack Spyke
4 games –
Brayden Corn
Longest Active Reached Base Safely Streaks:
21 games –
Hayden Friese (
includes a nine-game RBS streak to end 2024)
12 games –
Trey Spees
10 games –
Trent Turner
9 games –
Brayden Corn
8 games –
Cole Jones
7 games –
Mason Holton,
Elijah Smith
6 games –
Jack Spyke
Catamounts on the Preseason All-SoCon Team:
WCU landed
five players on the preseason All-Southern Conference teams, headlined by Friday night starter
Dusty Revis on the first team. Left-side senior infielders
Mason Holton and
Trent Turner were joined on the second team by utility player
Jack Spyke and outfielder
Hayden Friese, who has split time between the field and first base.
Revis and Turner were named to the
Perfect Game preseason All-SoCon team with Revis dubbed the league's top pitcher.
WCU was picked sixth in the eight-team Southern Conference by the league's head coaches in the preseason polling.
Scouting the Opponent – Michigan State (9-1):
The Spartans opened the season with six-straight wins before falling to new Big Ten Conference affiliate UCLA in a nonconference meeting in Corpus Christi, Texas, to snap the win streak. MSU enters Wednesday's game after sweeping Harvard in a trio of seven-inning, run-ruled contests, winning 14-1, 11-1, and 13-3. Nine of MSU's first 10 games have been played on neutral fields, posting an 8-1 record.
Michigan State enters the week batting .371 as a team with 77 total hits including 22 for extra bases – 10 doubles, two triples, and 10 home runs. The Spartans average 7.8 runs per game while limiting opponents to 2.9 runs per game coming on 61 hits with 14 extra-base hits – five doubles, three triples, and six homers surrendered. Opponents have been held to a .210 average against.
Six Spartans are batting above the .300 threshold to start the season with Ryan McKay hitting .346 to lead the team. JT Sokolove has a team-best 10 hits as part of his .323 average. Michigan State's 10 home runs have been split between seven players with three – Sam Busch, Parker Picot, and Caleb Berry – each with two homers a piece.
Early in the season, one of the strengths for the Green has been pitching. Michigan State boasts a team ERA of 2.81 over 80.0 innings, allowing only 29 runs – 25 earned – on 61 hits including 14 for extra-bases. WCU provides one of the top-hitting lineups MSU has seen to date, while the Spartans should also challenge the strong-hitting Catamount side.
The Spartans finished 24-27 last season with 14 neutral field games, finishing 5-9.
Western Carolina vs. Michigan State – The Series:
The Catamounts and Spartans have met eight times previously on the baseball diamond dating back to 2008 with each meeting coming on a neutral field. All but one of the meetings has been contested at MSU's home-away-from-home, Fluor Field in Greenville, S.C. The first meeting came in 2008 in Texas at a tournament hosted by Rice - a 5-3 win for hte Spartans. WCU won its first meeting in 10 innings back in 2019 before Michigan State won the next four head-to-head contests with two, one-run games and the other two decided by just three and four run margins.
Western Carolina won the most recent meeting over Michigan State last March with a 9-5 victory in MSU's First Pitch Invitational. The Catamounts broke a 2-2 tie with a five-run seventh inning before holding off a ninth-inning rally by the Spartans to snap the four-game slide. Among WCU's returning players from a season ago
Jack Spyke (1-for-4) reached base twice with a walk and a single,
Trent Turner (1-for-5), and
Mason Holton (0-for-2) drew a walk.
Western Carolina vs. the Big Ten Conference:
Michigan State marks a second Big Ten foe on the Catamount schedule this season after WCU took 2-of-3 from Maryland in Cullowhee on Feb. 21-23. Western Carolina has played 10 of the 17 teams now in the Big Ten. The Catamounts hold a 24-22 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 continues its five-game road swing away from Cullowhee as the Catamounts travel to Decatur, Ga., for a three-game series against Georgia State at the GSU Baseball Complex this weekend, March 7-9. The swing continues next week with a trip to Boiling Springs, N.C., to face Gardner-Webb on March 11.
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).
