Cullowhee, N.C. – The 2026 Western Carolina softball season will go down in the record books as one of the best in school history as the Catamounts claimed 34 victories, the most by a WCU softball program since 2016 with 33 wins.

Catamount 2026 Season Notes:

• WCU finished with a 34-24 mark, marking the second-most wins in school history, only trailing the 41 victories from the 2006 squad.
• Christened Betty Peele Field at the Catamount Softball Complex midway through the year to honor one of the Catamount Athletics matriarchs, WCU finished with 19 home victories, the most since winning 20 in Cullowhee in 2006 … the 19 home wins are a six-game improvement over last season's home record. 
• The Catamounts had nine players honored at the end of the regular season on the league's two all-conference teams and freshman honors. 
• The nine selections surpassed the previous benchmark of six from 2006 and 2021. WCU's three, first-team selections (Maya McPherson, Sydney Dirks, Amanda Fulton) are the most for WCU since 2021 and are tied for the second-most in school history. Lily Bell, Becka Wonsick, and Tate Stewman earned second-team honors.  
• The three freshman honors (Amari. Burce, Kayden Lyda, Briony Bunsic) marks the second time in the last three years that WCU has had three freshmen recognized.
• WCU finished the season with six regulars batting over the .300 mark – McPherson with the second-best league average at .403, Bell (.383), senior Tate Stewman (.345), Dirks (.342), Becka Wonsick (.336), and Taylor Waitley (.320) as the Catamounts finished second in the SoCon with a .313 team average that set the school record for batting average in a season by 30 points (2006 -- .283).
• The Catamounts led the SoCon in runs (368), hits (504), home runs (73), runs batted in (337), and slugging percentage (.505). WCU also finished second in batting average (.313), stolen bases (78), and third in on-base percentage (.385), along with doubles (73) and walks (181). 
• Entering Super Regional weekend, Western Carolina ranks 24th in the nation in hits, 34th in RBIs, 37th in runs, and 40th in home runs.
• WCU finished the spring semester with 17 players above a 3.50 cumulative GPA. 

Records Broken in 2026

• In nonconference play against Charlotte, Bell broke the school record for runs scored, now with 141 career runs … On April 14, she became the school's record holder for career hits, as she is the first Catamount in school history to reach 200. Bell begins her senior season with 226 career hits, eclipsing 72 hits in all three of her seasons in #CatamountCountry.
• In a 21-0 shutout victory of Gardner-Webb back on April 14, Western Carolina set four program single-game records, with 20 hits, including seven doubles, scoring 21 runs with 21 RBI in the opener. Five individual game records were also tied as McPherson and Rylee Butler both had two doubles, with McPherson and senior Tate Stewman scoring four runs apiece. Freshman Amari Burce matched a school record with seven RBIs. 
• The Catamounts rewrote the record book once again on April 21 at NC Central, breaking three single-season team records and setting a single-game team record. Western Carolina broke single-season records for runs scored, stolen bases, and runs batted in, while also setting a single-game team record with 10 stolen bases in the opener. 
• In the home finale against Mercer, the Catamounts matched the single-game team records for hits with 20 and home runs with five, a mark previously hit earlier this season in a run-rule win over Furman.
• Stewman capped the home season with a seventh-inning RBI single, giving WCU 462 hits to surpass the 2006 squad for most hits in a season. WCU finished the 2026 season with 504 hits, most in school history and the first team in the SoCon to eclipse 500 hits in a season. 
• McPherson's double in the final series of the season against Wofford set a new single-season record for doubles by a team. WCU finished with 73 two-baggers on the season, led by McPherson with 14. 
• WCU finished second in the single-season record book with 73 homers, just nine homers away from breaking the single-season record. The Catamounts had four double-digit homers led by McPherson (17), Stewman (16), Dirks (15), and Wonsick (11). The four double-digit performances is the most since 2006 when the Purple & Gold had five eclipse 10+ homers. 
• Western Carolina broke the single-season team records for batting average (.313), slugging percentage (.505), on-base percentage (.385), hits (504), doubles (73), runs (368), runs batted in (337), total bases (812), steals (79), and sacrifice flies (24).

Catamounts Individual Leaders 

• The Catamount offense rewrote the record books throughout 2026 with multiple record-breaking performances at the dish led by junior third baseman Maya McPherson, along with McPherson's classmate in second baseman Lily Bell.
• McPherson finished with a .403 batting average, becoming just the second player in school history and second in as many years to bat at or above the .400+ threshold. Bell finished fifth with a .383 batting average, ranking fifth in the single-season record book. Bell and McPherson currently hold four of the five best batting average single-season marks in their respective careers, along with 2023 Brooklynn Brewington at .393, who ranks third.
• McPherson's offensive season, which netted her a pair of SoCon Player of the Week awards and first-team all-league honors, included a school-record .754 slugging percentage, second-most hits at 77, third-most runs with 49, third-most homers with 17, tied for second with classmate Sydney Dirks at 57 runs knocked in, most total bases at 144, and seventh in on-base percentage at .456.
• Bell, a second-team All-Conference honoree, finished fifth in school history in batting average, tied for first in runs with 53 which is a mark that was set in the 2006 debut season, rebroke her hit record at 79 as Bell now has three of the four best hit seasons in school history. The Woodstock, Ga. native, tallied at least one hit in 46 games and 25 multi-hit contests. She enters her 2027 senior season on a 16-game hit streak, hitting .567 (34-of-60) in the final three weeks, and had hits in 30 of her final 33 games as she reached base safely in her last 20 games.
• Left fielder Sydney Dirks finished with 15 homers, sixth in the SoCon, and finished tied for fourth in the league with McPherson and a team-best 57 RBIs. She also totaled 42 runs, 11 doubles, two triples, and a .653 slugging percentage. 
• First baseman Tate Stewman closed her career with a bang, going 22-of-53 (.415) over the last 15 games with four doubles and four homers to pair with 16 RBIs. Stewman's 16 homers, tied for fourth in the league just two off the league-best 18 long balls in 2026. 
• Becka Wonsick finished the regular season in the everyday role in right field as she hit .346 with 18 hits in league play … She hit .457 (21-of-46) with 14 runs, two doubles, one triple, and six homers in the last 16 games with 14 runs batted in as she connected on 11 homers for the season… 
• The Catamount backstop Taylor Waitley finished her WCU career with a .320 average, with 57 hits, which includes seven doubles and three homers paired with 33 RBIs and 38 runs scored. Waitley also has a .993 fielding percentage to go along with nine runners thrown out. 
• Catamount first-team all-conference pitcher Amanda Fulton finished among the league leaders in most of the league's stat categories … A previous SoCon Pitcher of the Week honoree placed second with 16 wins, third with a 2.60 ERA, third in strikeouts at 164, and paced the conference with 17 complete games and is among the nation's leaders with four saves, inside the top 25 in the country. 
• The Catamounts finished 24-2 when outhitting their opponents, 14-when hitting at least two homers, 27-2 when leading after four, 24-1 when holding a lead after five, 20-1 when leading after six frames… WCU finished with a 23-5 mark when scoring six or more runs, are 32-7 when holding opponents to less than five runs, and are unbeaten 19-0 when opponents have only scored two or fewer runs …. WCU went 21-9 when scoring first.