Rock Hill, S.C. –
Trey Spees ignited a six-run top of the third inning with the first of five Western Carolina home runs as the Catamounts powered their way past Big South foe Winthrop 15-7 on Thursday night in the nonconference series-opener at Founders Field.
Six Catamounts collected multi-hit games, with five different hitters slugging home runs, as nine of WCU's 16 base hits went for extra bases in the winning effort. It's the fourth-straight season that an
Alan Beck-led Catamount squad has erupted for five-or-more home runs in a single game. On Friday, WCU matched last year's five-homer game against Gardner-Webb, and the Catamounts had six home run efforts against Mercer in both 2024 and 2023.
The series continues Friday with a 6 p.m. start, live on ESPN+ (
paid subscription required), with live stats available online at CatamountSports.com.
Trent Turner doubled twice in a 3-for-4, two RBI effort, while
Jackson Lyda extended his reached-base safely streak to 19-straight with a 3-for-5 performance with a trio of singles and three runs scored. Both hits by Spees and
Cole Jones went for extra bases. Spees finished 2-for-4 with a solo home run and a double, while Jones was 2-for-5, likewise legging out a two-base hit and hitting a solo homer.
Walker Fox (2-for-5) reached base three times, driving in a run on one of his two singles and adding a run-scoring walk for his second RBI.
Wyatt Stanley (2-for-6) homered in a two-hit effort, while
Noah Quarless (1-for-4) hit a three-run homer.
Mason Holton (1-for-4) opened the scoring with an RBI sacrifice bunt and capped his night with a three-run home run in the eighth inning that pushed the game out of reach.
Winthrop (21-9), which suffered just its fourth home loss of the season, scored seven runs on 12 base hits in the loss, with two players recording multiple hits. Noah Cox had a trio of singles in a 3-for-4, two-run effort, while Josh Skowronski doubled twice in a 2-for-5 showing with an RBI. Corey Wouters (1-for-4) hit a three-run home run in Winthrop's five-run third, while Alan Benhardt (1-for-4) and Collin Crowley (1-for-4, 2 RBI) both doubled.
Holton gave the Catamounts a lead they would never relinquish in the top of the third inning. He gave himself up on a sacrifice bunt in a safety squeeze. Turner scampered home for the 1-0 lead that WCU carried into the third.
Spees then lit the fuse on a six-run frame, blasting a full-count pitch over the fence in right field. Turner delivered a run-scoring double, followed by an RBI single up the middle by Fox for the 4-0 cushion. Quarless then added the exclamation point, turning on a 0-1 pitch for a three-run bomb to left field and the 7-0 lead.
However, Winthrop counterpunched in the home half of the third. Wouters matched the Quarless homer with a three-run shot of his own to put the Eagles on the board as part of five-straight batters to reach for the home squad. Winthrop tacked on two more runs on an infield groundout and a run-scoring double by Crowley to trim the deficit to two, 7-5, through three complete.
The two sides then traded solo markers in the fourth and fifth innings to keep it at a two-run margin. Stanley hit a one-out home run in the top of the fourth before Winthrop plated one on a Skowronski double to make it 8-6.
Cole Jones smacked his second homer of the season to reestablish the three-run lead in the fifth, only to see an infield groundout result in a marker for the Eagles in a 9-7 ballgame through five innings.
Western Carolina (19-12) then pulled away with the game's final six runs over the last four innings. Fox drew a bases-loaded walk in the sixth inning, before Holton belted a three-run home run in the eighth inning for the 13-7 lead that further grounded the Eagles.
Spees scampered home on a wild pitch, and Turner capped scoring with a sacrifice fly in the ninth inning to ice the win.
Davis Budd (1-2) earned the victory in relief of
James Fordham. A trio of Catamount pitchers combined to toss three innings in the winning effort. Budd held Winthrop to a run on a hit with a strikeout after Fordham was chased in the third inning. Fordham, bumped up to the series-opening start, scattered nine hits while surrendering six runs – four earned – with a pair of strikeouts against a walk.
Mason Snyder earned the three-inning save, his first of the season, tossing three innings of two-hit, scoreless relief with three strikeouts against a pair of walks.
Winthrop starter Brayden Gilley (4-3) was tagged with the loss, giving up seven runs on nine hits with a walk and a strikeout over three innings. Five Eagle relievers combined for the final six innings, with Garrett Byrd (2.1 IP) and Walker Brodt (0.2 IP) both striking out two.
Game two of the nonconference set is scheduled for Friday at 6 p.m., with the series concluding on Saturday at 2 p.m.
