Cullowhee, N.C. – Winners of five of its first seven games, Western Carolina softball looks to continue its winning ways on Tuesday afternoon as the Catamounts welcome in Big South counterpart Winthrop for a nonconference doubleheader at the Catamount Softball Complex.

Tuesday's matchup with the Eagles was originally slated as the 2026 home opener, but the shift of North Carolina A&T twinbill last week led the doubleheader with the Aggies to kick off the 2026 home slate.

The doubleheader with the Eagles is slated for a Noon start in Cullowhee, and will be shown on ESPN+ (paid subscription required), with live stats available online at CatamountSports.com.

SOFTBALL MATCHUP: Winthrop (3-5) vs Western Carolina (5-2)
Date: Tuesday, Feb. 17
Time: 12:00 p.m. (Doubleheader)
Site: Catamount Softball Complex (Cullowhee, N.C.)
Live Stats: Stat Broadcast (Game One) | Stat Broadcast (Game Two)
Live Video: ESPN+ (Game One) | ESPN+ (Game Two)
Twitter: @CatamountSB

About Western Carolina:
Junior Maya McPherson lifted Western Carolina to a walk-off win over UConn on Sunday at the CSU Softball Complex with a sacrifice fly that scored sophomore AG Batson to cap a three-win trip to the Low Country Classic, co-hosted by Charleston Southern and the College of Charleston. WCU also picked up a win over Penn in five innings, split with CofC, and lost in five innings to Akron.

Coupled with its doubleheader sweep of NC A&T, WCU owns a 5-2 record, marking the best seven-game start to a season since 2022, mirroring that squad's start.

Over the opening seven games for WCU, McPherson posted a team-high 11 hits, tied for fifth in the SoCon, hitting at a .500 clip, which ranks second in the conference. Junior Lily Bell began her 2026 season scoring a team-best 12 runs, tied for first in the league.

Junior Sydney Dirks has a team-best five extra-base hits to open the season, collecting two doubles, a triple, and a pair of home runs. She holds a team-high .792 slugging percentage along with a conference-high 12 RBI. Sophomore Courtney Marks (.438 BA) and Bell (.385 BA) help lead a quartet of players that are hitting above .375 for WCU and propelling the team to a .323 team average.

In the circle, sophomore Amanda Fulton leads the team with a 1.47 ERA, second-best in SoCon, as one of just nine pitchers in the league with multiple wins. Fulton has the third most strikeouts in the Southern Conference with 23. Classmate AG Batson also has a pair of wins in just 8.1 innings of work, and senior Riley Pennington earned a run-rule win over Penn last Friday.

As a team, WCU is 27th in the nation in scoring at 8.0, 30th in RBIs per game (7.29), while sitting second in the SoCon in both categories.

Scouting the Opposition – Winthrop Eagles:
Winthrop (3-5) finished off its own Garnet & Gold Tournament with a 4-3 win over Robert Morris, a future WCU opponent in the Catamount Classic. The Eagles opened the season with a pair of losses to Syracuse before falling to No. 19/21 Virginia Tech and No. 12/14 South Carolina, all in Columbia, S.C. Winthrop split with Kent State and downed Le Moyne in its home tournament.

The Eagles were tabbed fourth in the seven-team Big South Preseason Poll. Winthrop is led by Kendall Fuller, a former Catamount softball assistant coach, who is in her fifth season at the helm for the Eagles. The 2026 season begins her eighth season coaching after also spending three years at Lees-McRae.

Redshirt junior utility Darrah Nickens leads the Eagles with a .429 batting average, as she's recorded nine hits, including three doubles and a homer. Senior infielder/utility Grayson Buckner sits with a .391 average as junior infielder Peyton Bryden and freshman outfielder Rebecca Amos each lead Winthrop with 10 hits.  Bryden leads the team with a pair of homers and a team-best seven RBIs.

Junior pitcher/utility Lonna Addison leads the Eagles with a 1-1 mark over four outings, totaling 24 strikeouts in 24.2 innings.

Tia Beckham earned preseason All-Big South team honors, as announced by the league's coaches.

All-time Series History:
The Catamounts and Eagles have met 25 times before Tuesday's doubleheader, with Winthrop holding a slim 13-12 all-time lead in the series. WCU and Winthrop split their 2025 meetings in tournament play in Rock Hill, S.C., with the Catamounts claiming a 4-1 win before the Eagles used a four-run seventh to slip past the Purple & Gold in the finale of the 2025 Eagle Classic. The two teams have met eight times in Cullowhee, with both earning four wins apiece. WCU has won three of the last four matchups.

Last Season vs Winthrop
During the 2025 split with the Eagles during the 2025 Eagle Classic, Maya McPherson posted a team-best .667 batting average, going 4-for-6 with a homer and three RBIs. Rylee Butler picked up a pair of RBIs as the two teams combined for only 11 runs over the two games. Amanda Fulton earned a win with a complete game, tallying seven strikeouts and allowing only one run as WCU pitching held the Eagles to one earned run in 13.2 innings.

On Deck for Western Carolina:
Following Tuesday's doubleheader in Cullowhee, the Catamounts open a seven-game road swing beginning a trip to Boiling Springs, N.C., on Tuesday, Feb. 24, to square off against Gardner-Webb. The doubleheader action against the Runnin' Bulldogs is slated for a 3 p.m. first pitch. Both games will have live stats available through links on CatamountSports.com, while also being shown on ESPN+ (paid subscription required).

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