Cullowhee, N.C. – Western Carolina softball looks to continue to hit the high note with a trip to Music City for the three-day, five-game Purple & Gold Classic, hosted by Lipscomb in Nashville, Tenn.
WCU opens the tournament against Southern Illinois on Friday (Feb. 27) at 11 a.m. ET, before squaring off against the host Lipscomb at 4 p.m. ET. The Catamounts have rematches with the Bisons (1:30 p.m. ET) and the Salukis (6:30 p.m. ET). The Purple & Gold finish off the weekend on Sunday at Noon ET against Big 10 counterpart Purdue.
All five scheduled games will have live stats online at CatamountSports.com, with ESPN+ (paid subscription required) slated to broadcast Saturday's matchup against Lipscomb. Both games against Southern Illinois will have audio broadcasts provided by the Salukis.
SOFTBALL MATCHUP: Southern Illinois (8-7) vs Western Carolina (8-3)
Date: Friday, Feb. 27 | Saturday, Feb. 28
Time: 11:00 a.m. ET | 6:30 p.m. ET
Site: Draper Diamond (Nashville, Tenn.)
Live Stats: Stat Broadcast (FRI) | Stat Broadcast (Sat.)
Live Radio: Varsity Network (SIU Radio)
SOFTBALL MATCHUP: Western Carolina at Lipscomb (4-9)
Date: Friday, Feb. 27 | Saturday, Feb. 28
Time: 4:00 p.m. ET | 1:30 p.m. ET
Site: Draper Diamond (Nashville, Tenn.)
Live Stats: Stat Broadcast (FRI) | Stat Broadcast (SAT)
Live Video: ESPN+ (paid subscription required) - SATURDAY
SOFTBALL MATCHUP: Purdue (8-6) vs Western Carolina
Date: Sunday, Mar. 1
Time: 12 p.m. ET
Site: Draper Diamond (Nashville, Tenn.)
Live Stats: Stat Broadcast
Twitter: @CatamountSB
About Western Carolina:
Western Carolina softball split its nonconference doubleheader at Gardner-Webb back on Tuesday, dropping the opener 10-7 before rapping out a season-high 17 hits in a 13-7 game two victory at the Brinkley Softball Complex. The teams combined for 37 runs on 45 total hits, 14 of which went for extra bases.
Senior Tate Stewman, along with juniors Becka Wonsick, Maya McPherson, and Sydney Dirks, led the Catamounts with four hits over the twin bill, including a 4-for-5 showing in game two from McPherson to earn her team-high seventh multi-hit game of the season.
Over the opening nine games for WCU, McPherson ranks second in the Southern Conference with a .487 batting average, while posting a team-high 19 hits. Junior Sydney Dirks has a team-best 10 extra-base hits to open the season, collecting four doubles, a triple, and five home runs. She holds a team-high .949 slugging percentage and 23 runs knocked in, good enough for the top 20 in the SoCon, as she's second in the nation in RBI per game at 2.09. Junior Lily Bell's 17 runs scored place her in second in the league, as senior Taylor Waitley, Dirks, and McPherson are in a tie for eighth with four doubles.
McPherson (.487 BA), Dirks (.410 BA), Stewman (.407 BA), Waitley (.406 BA), Marks (.321 BA), and Bell (.310 BA) have helped push the squad to a .332 team batting average through the opening 11 games, which ranks third in the league.
In the circle, sophomore Amanda Fulton leads the team with a 2.03 ERA, tied for sixth-best in SoCon, followed closely by classmate AG Batson at a 2.33 ERA. Fulton has the third most strikeouts in the conference with 34. Senior Riley Pennington is the third Catamount pitcher with two or more wins on the season as she earned her second decision at Gardner-Webb.
As a team, WCU is 10th in the country in RBIs per game (8.09), and 12th in the nation in scoring (8.73), while sitting tops in the SoCon in both categories.
Scouting the Opposition – Southern Illinois Salukis:
Southern Illinois (8-7) begins the weekend on a four-game losing skid after falling to SEC counterparts Ole Miss and #1 Tennessee as part of the UAB Green & Gold Classic last time out. The Salukis have a win over SoCon foe Mercer in Birmingham last weekend. SIU faces Purdue and WCU twice while getting the host Lipscomb once over the weekend in Nashville.
The Salukis were tabbed third in the 11-team Missouri Valley Conference preseason poll, as only the top four teams were picked in the preseason poll. Jen Sewell is in her fifth season leading SIU, having been with the program for the last 18 seasons, serving on the staff before becoming the head coach in 2022. The Salukis have advanced to the NCAA postseason five times and won four MVC tournament titles.
Junior Emily Williams leads SIU with a .391 batting average, with 18 hits and 12 runs driven in through 15 games. Junior Sydney Potter sits with a .353 batting average, third in the nation with 10 homers and driven in a team-high 24 runs, while sitting among the national leaders with a 1.039 slugging percentage.
Freshman Hailey Lucas has the best pitching mark for the Salukis in 2026 with a 1.81 ERA over 38.2 innings of work spanning eight outings and three starts with 29 strikeouts. Junior Emily Delgado has 23 strikeouts over 30 innings as Delgado has a pair of wins early in 2026 and a save apiece throughout the opening of the season.
Williams and junior Mikaela Coburn earned first-team All-MVC honors as voted on by the league's coaches.
WCU and SIU have only met one prior time before this weekend's action in Nashville, with the Salukis earning a 12-0 run-rule decision during the 2007 season from the FSU Invitational when Southern Illinois was nationally-ranked.
Scouting the Opposition – Lipscomb Bisons:
Lipscomb (4-9) enters its home tournament on a four-game slide, falling to Baylor, Clemson, and a pair of defeats to Coastal Carolina in the Palmetto State last weekend. The Bisons do have a SoCon victory over Furman on their resume already in 2026. The hosts battle Purdue and WCU twice, along with a battle against SIU, this weekend.
Led by longtime head coach Kristin Ryman, a 2004 alum of Lipscomb, who was a dual-sport athlete in Nashville, the Bisons were picked eighth in the 12-team ASUN preseason poll.
Junior outfielder/infielder Macyn Kirby leads the Bisons with a .515 batting average, as she's tied for the team-high with 17 hits. Graduate student infielder/outfielder Chapel Cunningham has 17 hits and a .395 batting average thus far. Freshman pitcher/infielder Elizabeth Martin leads the squad with 13 RBIs as she's tallied three homers and two doubles in just 10 games.
In the circle, Martin holds a 1.87 ERA with four earned runs allowed in 15 innings of work. Freshman Brooke Beam has a team-best 17 strikeouts in a team-high 33.2 innings of work.
The Catamounts and Bisons have played six times before the weekend, with Lipscomb earning all six victories, most recently in 2011 in Cullowhee by the score of 11-2. Friday's first matchup will mark WCU's first trip to Nashville since 2007.
Scouting the Opposition – Purdue Boilermakers:
Purdue (8-6) comes in on a two-game skid, falling to Georgia State and Georgia Tech in Atlanta last weekend. The Boilermakers have a pair of wins over a WCU common opponent, including last weekend's win over the College of Charleston. Purdue squares off with both Southern Illinois and Lipscomb in two matchups before closing the weekend with WCU.
Magail Frezzotti is in her third season at the helm in West Lafayette after spending three seasons as an assistant in Montana.
Junior outfielder Moriah Polar leads the team with a .511 batting average, totaling a team-best 23 hits, which includes four doubles, one triple, and a homer, and a team-high nine steals. Senior outfielder Khloe Banks holds a .333 batting average, with freshman utility Bella Douglas with a .325 average, four doubles, and three homers with a team-best 13 RBIs.
Junior Julia Gossett holds a team-best 3.75 ERA over 28 innings of work with a team-high 28 strikeouts and two wins. Freshman Bri Fontenot leads the Boilermakers with four victories.
WCU and Purdue meet for the first time in both schools' histories on Sunday. The Catamounts are looking for their first Power Four win since February 13, 2022, when the Purple & Gold knocked off N.C. State 1-0 in the River City Leadoff.
On Deck for Western Carolina:
Following Sunday's finale in Nashville, the Catamounts open the month by hosting the Catamount Classic. WCU welcomes Penn, Robert Morris, and Ohio for a 10-game three-day tournament set to open on Friday, March 6. All four teams are slated to play five games over the three days at the Catamount Softball Complex. All five WCU games are slated for ESPN+ (paid subscription required), with live stats available for each game through links on CatamountSports.com. Tournament Central for Catamount Classic.
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