Cullowhee, N.C. – Western Carolina baseball makes a meaningful road trip in its first extended series away from Childress Field / Hennon Stadium this season, traveling to Greenville, N.C., and East Carolina for the 2026 Keith LeClair Classic, hosted by the Pirates at Clark-LeClair Stadium.
The Catamounts face Troy (4-4, W-2) out of the Sun Belt Conference on Friday (Feb. 27) and Big Ten foe Rutgers (4-3, L-2) on Saturday (Feb. 28) with Noon starts in neutral-field matchups. WCU then closes the weekend against directional rival East Carolina (4-4-1, W-1) on Sunday (March 1) with a 3:30 p.m. first pitch on ESPN+ (
paid subscription required).
*** UPDATE: Game one vs. Troy has been pushed to a 3 p.m. anticipated start because of rain in Greenville, N.C. We'll update if and when we hear from eastern North Carolina ***
Live stats provided by ECU will be available online via
links at CatamountSports.com on the baseball schedule page. Friday's game against Troy will also have audio from the Troy Sports Radio Network.
An Extra-Special Eastward Trek:
This weekend's 400-mile in-state trip for WCU is as much about baseball as it is about history, tradition, and honoring a former Catamount.
Keith LeClair, the namesake of this weekend's memorial tournament, played (1985-88) and coached (1992-97) at Western Carolina University. He played on four consecutive Southern Conference championship teams as a first baseman. LeClair, a 2002 inductee into the WCU Athletics Hall of Fame, was an All-Southern Conference selection in 1988 and the tournament MVP of the '88 championship tournament.
He returned to lead his alma mater in 1992, guiding the Catamounts to three SoCon regular-season and tournament titles, as well as an NCAA south regional final. The Jack Leggett protégé was a three-time SoCon Coach of the Year who scored 229 victories before parlaying that success for a similar hue, changing cardinal direction from west to east in 1997.
A Hall of Fame coach with the Pirates, LeClair led ECU to 212 wins, four-straight NCAA regional appearances, three CAA titles, and one in Conference USA. His name is also attached to the C-USA Coach of the Year annual honor.
LeClair, at age 40, lost his heroic battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or more commonly known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's Disease. He is survived by his wife, Lynn, and two children, Dr. Audrey LeClair – a WCU graduate – and J.D. LeClair.
While ECU honors LeClair's No. 23, awarding it to a deserving player each season, the No. 23 is the only jersey number that has been retired in the storied history of Catamount baseball, done in a special ceremony on April 11, 2006. It adorns the outfield wall at Childress Field / Hennon Stadium.
Friday – Western Carolina vs. Troy (Noon)
Troy – Sr. RHP Tommy Egan (2 app., 2 GS – 1.80 ERA, 10.0 IP, 15K, 4BB)
WCU – Sr. LHP
Dusty Revis (2 app., 2 GS – 7.56 ERA, 8.1 IP, 8K, 1BB)
Saturday – Western Carolina vs. Rutgers (Noon)
Rutgers – R-So. RHP Zack Konstantinovsky (2 app., 2 GS – 2.08 ERA, 9.1 IP, 13K, 5BB)
WCU – So. RHP
Carter Burnette (2 app., 2 GS – 2.45 ERA, 11.0 IP, 16K, 5BB)
Sunday – Western Carolina vs. East Carolina (3:30 p.m.)
East Carolina – Fr. RHP Colby Weber (2 app., 2 GS – 3.86 ERA, 9.1 IP, 8K, 3BB)
Western Carolina – Fr. LHP
Evan Myers (2 app., 2 GS – 1.00 ERA, 9.0 IP, 10K, 3BB)
About Western Carolina:
Opening with seven of its first eight games at home, WCU started the year 6-2, the best for the Catamounts through eight games since 2014 when the Purple & Gold rattled off an 8-2 beginning. That start included wins over No. 2 Mississippi State, two at Washington State, and an 18-10 slugfest victory over then No. 15 Clemson as part of a 37-win season.
The 6-1 start at home is WCU's best since 2021, when the Bobby Moranda-led Catamounts won 10 of their first 11 in Cullowhee.
After an uncharacteristic start, the Catamounts have raised their seasonal batting average to .285 (73-of-256) – up to fifth in the SoCon – with 24 extra-base hits, including 18 doubles (2nd in SoCon) and six home runs (5th). The Catamounts are the fifth-best scoring team in the SoCon with 51 runs, averaging 6.4 per game, while surrendering 41 runs or 5.1 per contest. WCU's pitchers are fourth in the league with 76 strikeouts, including a conference-leading 29 looking, countering with the fewest walks (23).
WCU has three of the top eight individuals among the SoCon leaders at the plate, two-plus weeks into the season, paced by catcher
Noah Quarless with a league-leading .529 batting average. He's joined among the SoCon leaders by
Wyatt Stanley (.440) and
Jackson Lyda (.429).
Mason Holton carries a 19-game reached base safely streak into the weekend, including a streak of 11 straight from 2025, and has reached in eight-straight to start 2026. Quarless has reached in seven-straight, and
Jaylen Jones in six in a row.
Cole Jones boasts WCU's best active hitting streak at four.
Carter Burnette enters the week tied for the SoCon-best with 16 strikeouts, followed by starter
Evan Myers and reliever
Mason Snyder with 10 apiece, tied for 11th in the league. Snyder has six backwards K's, while WCU's weekend trio – Wright, Burnette, and Myers – each have four strikeouts looking.
Scouting the Opposition – Troy Trojans:
Troy heads to Greenville at 4-4, winners of two-straight, including a series-clinching victory over Campbell and a 6-5 upset of eighth-ranked Georgia in the midweek. The Trojans opened the season by dropping 2-of-3 at Southern Conference foe Mercer in Macon. Troy was picked third in the preseason Sun Belt Conference poll.
Troy enters the week batting .290 collectively as a team, with three regulars batting above .300. The team has 18 doubles, four triples, and 10 home runs for a combined 32 extra-base hits. With 62 runs scored, Troy is averaging 7.8 runs per game, while surrendering the same.
Aaron Piasecki (.481), Jimmy Janicki (.400), and Drew Nelson (.387) have started all eight games and lead the Trojans. Nelson has a team-best four doubles, and the eight homers are split between eight different players. Nico Azpilcueta (1st team) and Blake Cavill (3rd team) were both selected as preseason All-Americans, with Cavill picking up Sun Belt Preseason Player of the Year accolades.
Trojan pitchers have combined for a 7.71 ERA over 65.1 innings of work, giving up 16 doubles, a triple, and 13 home runs on a .320 batting average against.
Series History – Western Carolina vs. Troy:
Western Carolina and Troy have met four times previously on the baseball diamond, with all four meetings coming back in 1995. WCU leads the all-time series, 3-1, with two wins in Cullowhee and splitting a pair in Alabama. Troy won the most recent meeting on May 8, 1995.
WCU has faced eight teams currently in the Sun Belt Conference, three coming mostly as fellow members of the Southern Conference, with 139 series meetings against Appalachian State, 112 against Georgia Southern, and 57 against Marshall. The Catamounts are 183-153-1 against teams in the Sun Belt.
Scouting the Opposition – Rutgers Scarlet Knights:
Rutgers has started the season 4-3, entering the week on a two-game slide with its mid-week game against St. Joe's postponed. The Scarlet Knights took 3-of-4 from the College of Charleston, and dropped a pair of one-run games at Virginia Tech. RU plays host ECU on Friday afternoon before facing WCU on Saturday.
Rutgers is batting .337 collectively as a team, with five regulars batting above the .300 threshold. The team has 20 extra-base hits with 12 doubles and eight home runs, scoring 62 runs for an average of 8.9 per game. The Scarlett Knights have only surrendered 30 runs to date, limiting foes to just 4.3 per game.
Rutgers had three players – Peyton Bonds, Chase Krewson, and Charlie Meglio – who were each named preseason Big Ten Players to Watch, selected by their head coach. Bonds is batting a team-best .441, while Yomar Carreras (.429), Ryan Jaros (.423), and Meglio (.400) are all batting above .400. Meglio has five extra-base hits with two doubles and a team-best three homers.
As a pitching staff, the Scarlet Knights have a 4.40 collective ERA with 68 strikeouts against 34 walks, and opponents batting just .269 against.
Series History – Western Carolina vs. Rutgers:
Western Carolina and Rutgers have never met on the baseball diamond, with Saturday's meeting marking the first. The Catamounts have faced 10 current Big Ten teams, posting a 25-20 record, though many of the meetings came before the current conference alignment. WCU has six wins in 11 meetings against Ohio State, representing the most common B1G foe, with a 3-4 mark against Michigan State.
Scouting the Opposition – East Carolina Pirates:
Sunday's foe, East Carolina (4-4-1), enters with four wins against four losses with one weather-halted tie against No. 11 North Carolina. The Pirates took 2-of-3 from Xavier and split mid-week meetings with a loss at Campbell (2-1), and wins against Northern Illinois (11-5) and a neutral field victory over the College of Charleston (8-7).
No. 24 in the preseason rankings and the favorite to win the American Conference title, ECU plays Rutgers on Friday before facing Troy on Saturday, ahead of Sunday's showdown with the Catamounts.
The Pirates enter the week batting .284 as a team with 24 extra-base hits, including 19 doubles, a triple, and four home runs. ECU has 51 runs scored through nine games, averaging 5.7 per contest while surrendering just 48, or 5.3 per game. ECU's pitchers have limited foes to 21 extra-base hits – eight doubles but 13 home runs – with a 5.16 collective team ERA.
Junior pitcher Ethan Norby was a preseason All-America selection by multiple pundits and dubbed the Pitcher of the Year. He was joined on the preseason all-conference team by infielder Austin Irby and outfielder Braden Burress, who enters the tournament batting a team-best .485 on the season to pace four regulars batting above the .300 plateau.
Series History – Western Carolina vs. East Carolina:
Western Carolina trails East Carolina in the all-time series, 2-21, in a series that dates to 1976. The Catamount victories have come in Cullowhee (W, 8-4, 1977) and in a come-from-behind victory in the 2007 Chapel Hill regional elimination game in 2007 (W, 9-5). ECU has won all 17 meetings over the Catamounts in Greenville, N.C., and carries a seven-game series win streak into Sunday's scheduled meeting.
Western Carolina has played four teams currently in the American Conference, holding an 18-36 record, bolstered by the 23 –
a symbolic number – previous series meetings. WCU has a 12-8 mark against Charlotte, 4-4 against South Florida, and is 0-3 in one series at Rice.
Up Next for Western Carolina:
Competition continues to ramp up in the midweek as the Catamounts travel to Athens, Ga., on Wednesday, March 4, to face nationally-ranked Georgia. The two teams last met in 2016, with the Bulldogs carrying a two-game series win streak into the game. WCU won back-to-back games in 2012 and 2013 at Foley Field.
Next weekend, WCU travels to Charlotte for a four-game set, playing a pair of neutral field games against Radford on March 6-7, before two against the host 49ers on March 7-8.
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