Cullowhee, N.C. – Western Carolina baseball opens its 2026 season this weekend, hosting Atlantic-10 foe George Washington for a three-game nonconference series at the on-campus Childress Field / Hennon Stadium. The season-opening weekend marks the first-ever meetings on the diamond between the Catamounts and Revolutionaries.
The series opens at 4 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 13, and,
as announced on Thursday, now includes a Saturday doubleheader with first pitch at 1 p.m. Friday's opener is slated to be broadcast on ESPN+ (
paid subscription required). Saturday's twin bill is slated to have live audio from the Catamount Sports Network, with live stats (
StatBroadcast and Sidearm Stats) for each game available through links online at CatamountSports.com.
Beginning with Friday, seven of Western Carolina's first eight games will be played at home in Cullowhee, as the Catamounts host George Washington (Feb. 13-15) and Bowling Green (Feb. 20-22) in consecutive three-game weekend series, with Akron (Tues., Feb. 24) providing opposition in the first home midweek game.
Projected Pitching Matchups:
Friday (4 p.m.) – WCU – Sr. LHP Dusty Wright vs. GW – Sr. RHP Max Haug
Saturday Gm1 (1 p.m.) – WCU – So. RHP
Carter Burnette vs. GW – Jr. RHP Andrew Cutler
Saturday Gm2 (4 p.m.) – WCU – Fr. LHP
Evan Myers vs. GW – So. RHP Declan Wywoda
About Western Carolina:
Western Carolina returns 25 players, including 13 letter-winning position players and 12 pitchers, from a 30-28 season a year ago. The Catamounts had 10 SoCon wins to claim the fifth seed in the conference tournament. WCU then upended eighth-seeded VMI 15-1 in seven innings and upset No. 4 seed Mercer 10-3 before falling to top-seeded ETSU, 16-13, and nearly rallied past No. 3 seed The Citadel, 11-10, in last year's postseason classic.
The Catamounts also welcome 17 newcomers, including seven transfers – three redshirt sophomores, two juniors, a sophomore, and one graduate transfer – with five freshman position players, and five rookie pitchers to their 2026 roster.
WCU put five players on the preseason All-Southern Conference team, headlined by first-team selections in left-handed starting pitcher
Davis Wright, fifth-year senior shortstop
Trent Turner, and sophomore
Trey Spees as the designated hitter. Left-handed relievers
Owen Austin and
Ryan White earned second-team honors from the league's head coaches.
Turner and Wright were also selected as preseason All-SoCon by Perfect Game, joined by converted outfielder
Wyatt Stanley, who split time as the DH and at first base a season ago.
In the official preseason coaches' poll, the Catamounts were picked fifth in the SoCon, though pundits at D1Baseball.com pinned WCU seventh in its prognostications.
The Catamounts enter year four under head coach
Alan Beck, a four-year letter winner, three-time All-SoCon selection, and the 2003 SoCon Player of the Year.
Western Carolina in Season, Home Openers:
WCU opens the season at home for the first time since 2024 – a three-game series sweep over Iona in Cullowhee. Last year, the Catamounts took 2-of-3 from Maryland in their first home series, winning 8-7 in the opener. Western Carolina then rebounded from a one-sided 35-12 loss to win the series with an 11-9, walk-off victory in 10 innings in the series finale.
Elijah Smith cleared the centerfield batter's eye for his first career home run as the game-winner.
Entering Friday's season-opener, WCU has won 2-straight home-opening games, defeating USC Upstate in 2025 and sweeping Iona in 2024.
Scouting George Washington:
WCU's opening-weekend competition, George Washington, finished 27-27 last spring, which included a 14-16 mark in the A-10. The Revolutionaries hail from a league that is just as topsy-turvy as the SoCon can be on an annual basis. The A-10 has crowned five different champions over the past five seasons, though Rhode Island is pegged to repeat this year.
The Revs return 23 letter winners with 13 pitchers and five position starters for 2026, while welcoming 13 newcomers, including 11 first-years and two transfers. Junior catcher/first-baseman Robbie Lavey hit .311 last year, fourth on the squad, collecting 18 extra-base hits with 12 doubles, a triple, and five home runs. Charlie Rogan, who split time between first and DH last season, batted .303, with a team-best 17 doubles, a triple, and five homers.
GW's Friday starter, Max Haug, has made 59 appearances with seven starts over the past three years, compiling a 7.09 ERA over 111.2 innings with 109 career strikeouts against 74 career walks. He made 23 appearances last spring with one start.
In its preseason look at the A-10, Perfect Game selected GW's Saturday starter, RHP Andrew Cutler, as a player to watch. Cutler, who converted from the back end of the bullpen to a starter, was a second-team, All-A10 selection last year, boasting a 4.20 collective ERA over 49.1 innings with 46 strikeouts against 19 walks.
Hailing from Washington, D.C., George Washington is under the direction of 14-year head coach and GW Hall of Famer, Gregg Ritchie, a 1986 graduate who ranks second in program history in career wins. Ritchie, who played seven years in the San Francisco Giants organization that drafted him, coached hitting with the Pittsburgh Pirates for seven seasons before returning to his alma mater. Ritchie also coached with USA Baseball as a hitting coach for the 18U National Team, where he coached alongside former WCU skipper – and ABCA Hall of Famer Jack Leggett.
Familiar Face / Name:
Tanner Sinicki, the Director of Pitching and Player Development for George Washington, is the son of long-time Binghamton head coach
Tim Sinicki, who played two seasons for the Catamounts in the late 1980s.
After opening his collegiate career at Binghamton, Tim played for one year at Broome Community College before transferring to Western Carolina, where he finished his college playing career in Cullowhee. He is a 1988 graduate of Western Carolina University, winning 15 games, including a team-best nine as a senior, in helping the Catamounts win two SoCon Championships.
Tanner played for and coached alongside his father, Tim, after graduating in 2023.
On Deck for Western Carolina:
Following the season-opening three-game series against George Washington, Western Carolina plays its lone road game among its first eight games, traveling to Spartanburg, S.C., to face perennial Big South power USC Upstate. The front end of the nonconference home-and-home is scheduled for Tuesday (Feb. 17) at 3 p.m. at Harley Park.
WCU returns home next weekend to host Bowling Green (Feb. 20-22), which was fifth in the Mid-American Conference (MAC) preseason polling. It's just the second series between the two all-time, with the Catamounts sweeping the Falcons back in 2009 in a three-game set in Cullowhee on the same dates.
The seven-game home stretch concludes with a Tuesday (Feb. 24) meeting with a second MAC-foe, Akron, which was picked 10th in the preseason poll.
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