Cullowhee, N.C. – Senior middle infielder Trent Turner and junior reliever Mason Snyder headlined five Catamounts named to the 2026 All-Southern Conference postseason teams released Tuesday afternoon ahead of this week's championship event at Fluor Field at the West End, in Greenville, S.C.
Turner and Snyder were both selected to the first team at their respective positions by the league's head coaches, with redshirt sophomore catcher Noah Quarless landing on the second team. Redshirt freshman Jaylen Jones and true freshman starter Evan Myers were dubbed SoCon All-Freshman, with Turner also garnering a SoCon All-Defensive team nod for a second-straight season.
It's the third-consecutive season that WCU has landed two first-team honorees, though it's the first All-SoCon honor for this year's duo. The Catamounts had a SoCon All-Freshman team honoree for the fourth-straight season, with Turner garnering all-defensive plaudits in as many seasons as the award has been handed out. Coaches were not allowed to vote on their own players.
A transfer from Berry College, Mason Snyder has quietly had a dominant season out of the bullpen. The Ocilla, Ga., product boasts a SoCon-best 1.82 collective ERA, a mark that would rank him third nationally. Snyder currently falls just below the minimum cutoffs for inclusion on the lists of at least one inning per team game played – Snyder has 53.2 innings over WCU's 56 total games played to date.
Snyder has a 7-1 seasonal record with a pair of saves. He's struck out 46 batters against 19 walks on the season, while limiting opponents to a .190 batting average against.
Turner closed the regular season with a .281 collective batting average, entering the tournament with 56 hits in 199 at-bats with 26 extra-base hits, including 11 doubles, three triples, and a team-best 12 home runs. He closed the regular season third on the squad with 43 RBI. The Waynesville, N.C., product finished fourth in the SoCon in league-only batting average, hitting .386 with seven doubles, all three triples, and five home runs. He scored 20 runs against league foes, while driving home 22.
Turner, who was also an All-Defensive Team selection, carries a .965 fielding percentage over 200 chances with 112 assists, and has been a part of turning 24 of WCU's Southern Conference-leading 46 double-plays.
Catching most of the games this season, appearing in 54 of the team's 56 games with 51 starts, second-team honoree Noah Quarless closed the regular season batting .295, that included batting at a .342 clip in SoCon play. The Winston-Salem, N.C., product heads to the Fenway replica at Fluor Field with 30 extra-base hits on the season, including 18 doubles, two triples, and 10 home runs, one of four Catamounts with double-digit dingers this spring. He recorded 45 runs with 38 driven in. Aided by the squad's second-most walks on the year at 30, Quarless reached base 42.3% of the time he stepped to the plate, the squad's second-best average among the regulars.
Quarless, who arguably could have landed on the defensive honorary squad, has thrown out 17 runners on the base paths – an impressive feat in the SoCon, a league that boasts three teams inside the Top 30 nationally in stolen bases, each with over 100, including the national runner-up in the regular season, VMI (180).
Redshirt freshman Jaylen Jones and true freshman starter Evan Myers landed on the SoCon All-Freshman team. Jones closed the season with a team-best .308 batting average among the regulars, finishing with 52 hits, including 11 doubles, a triple, and four home runs. He scored 36 runs with 34 driven in. The Loganville, Ga., product transitioned to the outfield to fill the void left by the injury to Elijah Smith, and didn't miss a beat, fielding .991 with 15 assists.
Myers turned in one of the best rookie seasons by a Catamount pitcher, closing the year with a 6-1 record – the best among the starters. He made 15 appearances with 13 starts as a freshman. The Denver, N.C., product struck out 42 batters over 54.0 innings of work, fanning four-or-more six times, including a career-best nine at VMI. WCU won 12 of the 15 games Myers pitched in this spring.
Regular-season champion Mercer collected three of the five individual specialty awards, including Player of the Year Chris Katz, Freshman of the Year Garrett Lambert, and Coach of the Year, Craig Gibson. Wofford junior ace Alec Bouchard was selected as the SoCon Pitcher of the Year, with The Citadel's Aryan Patel named the Golden Glove Award recipient for the Defensive Player of the Year.
All eight teams were represented on the postseason All-SoCon squad, with Mercer leading the way with eight selections, including seven on the first-team alone. ETSU had six honorees, five coming on the second team, with The Citadel putting four of its five selections on the second team. Samford had four total honors with three first-team selections, with WCU marking the only other squad with multiple first-team picks.
Each league team put at least one on the SoCon All-Freshman team, with WCU, Mercer, ETSU, and UNCG landing two apiece. Six of the eight teams earned a pick on the SoCon All-Defensive team with Samford landing four, with The Citadel, ETSU, and VMI, tallying two picks apiece.
The 2026 Southern Conference Baseball Championship, presented by Holston Gases, opens on Wednesday morning at Fluor Field in Greenville, S.C., with the first of four scheduled games, including two single-elimination games in the first two contests. Second-seeded Western Carolina is scheduled to open its quest for the tournament title on Thursday at 12:30 p.m.
2026 All-SoCon Baseball Team & Awards
Player of the Year: Chris Katz, Sr., OF, Mercer
Pitcher of the Year: Alec Bouchard, Jr., RHP, Wofford
Freshman of the Year: Garrett Lambert, R-Fr., RHP, Mercer
Golden Glove Award (Defensive Player of the Year): Aryan Patel, Sr., 3B, The Citadel
Coach of the Year: Craig Gibson, Mercer
First-Team All-SoCon
SP – Alec Bouchard, Wofford
SP – Garrett Lambert, Mercer
SP – Will Holmes, The Citadel
RP – Mason Snyder, Western Carolina
RP – Jess Ackerman, Mercer
RP – Zak Spurrier, Samford
C – Cade Carr, Samford
1B – Grayson Fitzwater, VMI
1B – Tristan Curless, ETSU
2B – Trent Turner, Western Carolina
SS – Titan Kamaka, Mercer
3B – Brant Baughcum, Mercer
OF – Chris Katz, Mercer
OF – Eli Stephens, Mercer
OF – Jake Souders, Samford
DH – Braydon Kersey, Mercer
Second-Team All-SoCon
SP – Michael Harpster, ETSU
SP – Andrew Buffkin, The Citadel
SP – Cullen Condon, Wofford
RP – Michael Gibson, The Citadel
RP – Andrew Garnett, Mercer
RP – Zane Davis, The Citadel
C – Cole Raile, VMI
C – Noah Quarless, Western Carolina
1B – Michael Gibson, The Citadel
2B – Ian Guanzon, ETSU
SS – Henry Ferguson, ETSU
3B – Jacob Budzik, UNC Greensboro
OF – Ben Timblin, Wofford
OF – Jamie Palmese, ETSU
OF – Luke Boykin, Samford
DH – Nate Conner, ETSU
2026 SoCon All-Freshman Team
Garrett Lambert, P, Mercer
Jaylen Jones, OF, Western Carolina
Brady Gold, SS, Wofford
Jayden Williams, OF, The Citadel
Evan Myers, P, Western Carolina
Eddie Marshall, C, Samford
Cooper Jones, P, ETSU
Tanner Berry, C, UNC Greensboro
Mason Ault, C, ETSU
Ethan Buffone, 2B, Mercer
Ayden West, P, UNC Greensboro
Buddy Baker, P, VMI
2026 SoCon All-Defensive Team
Aryan Patel, 3B, The Citadel
Grayson Fitzwater, 1B, VMI
Owen Prince, OF, VMI
Henry Ferguson, 2B, ETSU
Jayden Williams, OF, The Citadel
Parker McDonald, 3B, Samford
Jamie Palmese, OF, ETSU
Cade Carr, C, Samford
Jeff Ince, 2B, Samford
Niko Brini, OF, Wofford
Trent Turner, 2B, Western Carolina
Gus Gandy, SS, Samford
