Cullowhee, N.C. – Western Carolina returns to Southern Conference play this weekend as the Catamounts wrap up their home slate at Childress Field / Hennon Stadium by hosting longtime league rival The Citadel for a three-game set.
Western Carolina (24-24, 6-9 SoCon) halted a three-game slide on Wednesday in its final midweek nonconference home game, rallying to walk-off Presbyterian 5-4 to complete the three-game, regular-season sweep of the Blue Hose.
Wyatt Stanley and
Trent Turner delivered consecutive ninth-inning doubles with pinch-runner
Brody Raleigh scoring on the second two-bagger.
The Catamounts have won eight of their last 13 games overall, back to mid-April, which included a five-game winning streak.
Last time out, The Citadel (26-21, 9-6 SoCon) snapped a lopsided, two-game skid after dropping the series finale at UNCG 18-4 in seven innings last Sunday and a 14-1 seven-inning defeat at crosstown rival, the College of Charleston, on Tuesday. The Bulldogs broke a 2-2 tie in the bottom of the fifth inning with four-straight runs in a 6-3 victory over Winthrop, the 19th victory for the squad along the banks of the Ashley River.
Tickets can be
purchased in advance online at CatamountSports.com. Each game is scheduled to be broadcast on ESPN+ (
paid subscription required) with
live stats linked to CatamountSports.com.
Game One: Friday, May 9 – 5 p.m.
The three-game SoCon series opens on Friday evening with a 5 p.m. first pitch.
The Community Table and
Ingles have partnered with Catamount Athletics for a
special food drive (click for more information). Patrons are encouraged to stop by any of the area Ingles Markets to purchase non-perishable items and bring those to the gate to help benefit The Community Table, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide nutritious meals in a welcoming environment to neighbors in need across Jackson County. Any fans who donate food at the gate will receive
FREE admission to Friday's game.
Community Table Food Donation Requests: peanut butter, canned tuna or canned chicken, boxed macaroni and cheese.
Projected Pitching Match-Up:
WCU – RHP
Dusty Revis (4-5, 4.48 ERA) vs.
CIT – George Derrick Floyd (4-2, 4.44 ERA)
Game Two: Saturday, May 10 – 5 p.m.
The pivotal game two of the series is scheduled for Saturday with a special 5 p.m. start time. The game has been denoted as
Scout Day with
FREE admission to all scouts, courtesy of Ingles. In addition to the traditional Catamount Dining concessions,
Farmhouse Lemonade and
Glazed and Infused will be in attendance to help celebrate WCU's final home Saturday.
Projected Pitching Match-Up:
WCU – LHP
Davis Wright (3-6, 5.02 ERA) vs.
CIT – Andrew Stanley (4-2, 4.98 ERA)
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Please note that Western Carolina University's graduation ceremonies are scheduled for Saturday with two commencements – one at 10 a.m., and a second at 3 p.m. Traffic around the Ramsey Center and the North Baseball parking deck will be extremely heavy throughout the day.
Game Three: Sunday, May 11 – 1 p.m. first pitch
The series finale is chock-full of activities on Sunday afternoon, beginning 30 minutes ahead of the 1 p.m. scheduled first pitch. Western Carolina will honor six baseball seniors – RHP
Maret Drye, RHP
Evan Langston, RHP
Paddy McGonigal, RHP
Cannon Pickell, C/1B
Jack Spyke, and RHP
Brent Walls – as well as those players who are graduating, with a special on-field ceremony with University Chancellor Dr. Kelli R. Brown. McGonigal and Spyke, as well as
Spenser Hamblen,
Adam Quincy, and
Trent Turner, will each take part in Sunday's on-field commencement ceremony.
Additionally, on Sunday, the Catamounts will also honor their mothers with a special Mother's Day tribute during pregame festivities.
Projected Pitching Match-Up:
WCU – TBA vs.
CIT – Chandler Anderson (1-3, 5.54 ERA)
Noting Western Carolina:
The Catamounts enter the weekend as the third of three SoCon teams still batting above the .300 mark collectively. WCU has a .301 average as a team, including the second-most base hits with 491, 15 behind ETSU (506). Among the nearly 500 base hits are a SoCon-leading 104 doubles – tied for 28th nationally – with nine triples and 54 team home runs.
Five Catamount regulars are batting above .300, led by
Jack Spyke at .352 – fifth among all SoCon individuals. The Lawrenceville, Ga., product also ranks second in the league with a team-best 17 doubles.
Trent Turner (.323) leads WCU with 62 base hits, including a team-best 23 extra-base hits with 11 doubles, a triple, and a team-high 11 home runs. He also has
Rounding out WCU's top-hitters are
Hayden Friese (.321), who missed Wednesday's game against Presbyterian with a knee injury,
Mason Holton (.307), and
Brayden Corn (.306), who has a team-best 16 stolen bases.
WCU also has four players just below .300 on the year, with sophomore
Elijah Smith (.297) and redshirt freshman
Wyatt Stanley (.295) just a hit or two below the benchmark.
Saturday's projected starter,
Davis Wright, continues to lead the SoCon with 71 total strikeouts, with a league-best 24 looking. His counterpart – and anticipated Friday night starter –
Dusty Revis has moved to the top 10 with 59 strikeouts, including the sixth-most backwards K's (18).
Brandon Langley (2-0), who scored Wednesday's midweek victory over Presbyterian in relief, also boasts a SoCon-leading eight saves, tied for 25th nationally.
Scouting The Citadel:
One of the surprise teams of the 2025 season, The Citadel (9-6) comes up the mountain in a tie for second place in the Southern Conference standings. The Bulldogs simply find ways to win baseball games despite ranking at or near the bottom in the SoCon in most offensive statistical categories. On the mound, The Citadel boasts the SoCon's third-best team ERA (5.14), while the backend of the bullpen has a conference-best 17 saves spread between seven different players.
For the Bulldogs, a combined 19 of the 26 victories for the Cadets have come at the cavernous Joe Riley Park in Charleston, where The Citadel has played 31 of their 47 seasonal games, or 66 percent of the schedule. The Citadel is 7-9 in road games and has dropped five of its last seven away from "The Joe."
The Bulldogs are batting .253 collectively as a team with 369 hits, including 93 for extra bases – 70 doubles, nine triples, and 14 home runs. They are averaging 4.8 runs on 7.9 hits per game. While surrendering a .276 batting average against, The Citadel's pitching staff is allowing just 5.6 runs on 9.4 hits per outing.
Two players are batting at or above the .300 threshold this season for The Citadel, paced by Anthony Hausner (.307) and Phillips Daniels (.300). Phillips has a team-high 12 doubles, with TJ Anderson (.290) ranking second on the squad with 11 two-base hits. Travis Elliott (.288) has a team-best 47 base hits and 30 RBI.
Hausner also has 12 pitching appearances with a 2-2 record and six saves. Game one and game two starters George Derrick Floyd (4.44) and Andrew Stanley (4.98) both have seasonal ERA under five.
The Citadel is built to apply pressure to opponents playing small ball. The Bulldogs lead the SoCon – and rank tied for fourth nationally – with 52 sacrifice hits this season. Travis Elliott has a SoCon-best 13 sac bunts, tied for third among all national individuals. The Bulldogs also rank third in the conference on the base paths with 83 stolen bases.
Western Carolina vs. The Citadel – All-Time Series History:
Longtime conference rivals, the Catamounts and Bulldogs have met 171 times previously on the baseball diamond with WCU leading the series, 101-70, including four-straight wins after sweeping the series last year in Charleston. The two programs have met 80 times previously in Cullowhee, with the Catamounts carrying a 54-26 edge into this weekend. The Catamounts took 2-of-3 in the most recent meeting in western North Carolina.
Last season, the Catamounts out-slugged the Bulldogs on the way to a three-game series sweep in the Lowcountry. WCU outscored The Citadel 28-7, outhit the Cadets 32-14, which included a 10-to-1 edge in extra-base hits – seven doubles and three homers. WCU finished the three-game series with a .302 (32-of-106) average, while The Citadel was limited to a .165 performance at the plate.
WCU's weekend series against the Bulldogs features the two most decorated programs in SoCon baseball history. The two teams have combined for 44 regular-season and tournament titles. Western Carolina has 23 SoCon championships (13 regular-season, 10 tournament), while The Citadel has won 21 combined (13 regular-season, 8 tournament).
On Deck for Western Carolina:
With their midweek nonconference games in the rearview mirror, the Catamounts turn their attention to the final SoCon series of the year with a three-game road set at UNC Greensboro next Thursday through Saturday, May 14-16, at the UNCG Baseball Complex.
Results over the next six league games will determine the seeding for the 2025 Southern Conference Baseball Championship, presented by Holston Gases, scheduled for May 21-25, at Fluor Field at the West End in Greenville, S.C. The top two seeds earn a two-day bye, not opening play until Friday of tournament week. Seeds No. 3 and No. 4 await the winners from Wednesday's two single-elimination games between seeds five through eight.
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).
