Cullowhee, N.C. – Western Carolina baseball used a pair of three-run innings in the second and third to rally back from an early seven-run deficit against visiting USC Upstate to claw to within a run, 7-6, a third of the way through the nonconference meeting at Childress Field / Hennon Stadium.
However, the Spartans responded in the top of the fourth with the second of their three, five-run innings in the winning effort, continually answering WCU scores in completing the two-game, home-and-home sweep by claiming Tuesday's slugfest, 18-11.
The two teams combined for 29 total runs on 27 hits, while committing a combined eight errors in the backend of the two-game seasonal series. USC Upstate finished with nine extra-base hits, including four doubles, a triple, and four home runs. WCU had five hits go for extra bases, with three doubles, a triple, and a home run.
Jackson Lyda and
Noah Quarless both collected three hits in 3-for-5 efforts to pace five Catamounts with multi-hit efforts. Lyda doubled, and Quarless finished a homer shy of the cycle, legging out a double and his first career triple, adding two RBI.
Mason Holton was 2-for-4 with a double and a three-run home run, while
Jaylen Jones (2-for-4) collected a pair of run-scoring singles.
Walker Fox reached base four times, singling twice in a 2-for-3 performance with a walk and an HBP.
A mid-game substitution,
Caden Haywood drove home two on a pair of deep sacrifice flies, with
Trey Spees plating a run on an infield groundout before being lifted late.
Five Spartans collected multiple hits, with Henry Zenor doubling twice in a 4-for-6 performance, and Tyler Lang drove home a career-best five runs on a pair of hits, including a three-run home run. Wylie Waters (2-for-3) plated four runs in reaching base three times, hitting an eighth-inning, three-run home run with a mid-game sacrifice fly.
Trey Bentley (2-for-5) collected a pair of RBIs with a solo home run and a double, while Preston Lucas (2-for-5) tripled and homered in the road victory. Clayton Campidilli (1-for-4) had two RBI, coming on a groundout and a single up the middle in the five-run eighth.
Catamount starter
Tyler Oaks (1-3) was tagged for the loss, surrendering five runs on five hits with a walk and a strikeout in just two-thirds of an inning before being lifted. Of the seven relievers to toe the rubber,
Kaden Fuller was WCU's most effective, striking out three over three innings, holding Upstate to a run on two hits with a walk. Freshman
Evan Myers made just his second relief appearance of the season, tossing a perfect ninth in an inning of work.
Upstate starter Nathan Hook surrendered six runs – four earned – on six hits over three innings in the start, working around a walk with a pair of strikeouts before being relieved. First out of the bullpen, Wyatt Land (1-1) was credited with the victory, giving up two runs on three hits with a strikeout in two frames of work. Jack Gibson struck out one in a third of an inning, and Jacob Kirby fanned two in a 1-2-3 ninth for the Spartans.
Two homers, including a three-run blast, gave USC Upstate a five-run lead after the top of the first inning as the Spartans started the game on-time and on-target. The visitors tacked on two more runs on infield groundouts in the second to grab the 7-0 lead heading into the bottom of the second. WCU got on the board thanks to a run-scoring single by
Jaylen Jones and a
Trey Spees RBI groundout to make it 7-3.
Holton's three-run homer in the third inning clawed WCU back to within a run at 7-6 through three complete. However, a five-run fourth inning aided by four costly Catamount errors stretched the deficit back out to six, 12-6, through four.
Trailing by seven, 13-6, WCU used a Quarless RBI triple, and the first of two Haywood sacrifice flies to close to within five, 13-8. Then in the seventh, Haywood struck again with a deep, run-scoring flyball out before
Jaylen Jones made it a three-run game, 13-10, on an RBI single.
However, for the third time in the game, Upstate found a five-spot, including a three-run homer by Waters to ultimately seal the road victory.
Western Carolina (20-14, 3-3 SoCon) continues its five-game homestand this weekend, welcoming Southern Conference preseason favorite Mercer (25-8, 4-2 SoCon) to Cullowhee for a three-game league series that opens Friday at 5 p.m. Saturday's second game is scheduled for a 3 p.m. first pitch following WCU football's annual Spring Game (Noon), with the series concluding Sunday at 1 p.m.
Each game of the series is scheduled to be broadcast on ESPN+ (
paid subscription required) with live stats available online at CatamountSports.com.
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