May 31, 2010
Cullowhee, N.C. -
Following Monday afternoon's NCAA Baseball "Road to Omaha" Selection Show, the Catamount baseball team's season officially came to an end. With the club's runner-up finish in the SoCon Tournament, it also concludes the athletic seasons for Western Carolina in 2009-10.
The Southern Conference earned three berths into the NCAA Field of 64 for the first time ever as one of three NCAA conferences to garner three teams joining the Big East and Sun Belt. The league's three bids ties for the fourth-highest among conferences, trailing only the ACC, SEC, Pac-10 and Big XII. The Citadel (42-20, 24-6 SoCon) garnered the league's automatic bid and will travel to the Columbia, S.C., regional with second-place finisher College of Charleston (42-17, 22-8) traveling north along the coast for the Myrtle Beach Regional.
A third team, Elon (38-22, 19-11) also garnered a second at-large berth from the SoCon and will travel to the Atlanta Regional, hosted by national No. 8 seed, Georgia Tech.
Considered by most pundits as a bubble team down the stretch during the regular season, Western Carolina (37-21-1) made a late push for consideration by making a run through the Southern Conference tournament which was capped a tremendous run by Sunday's title game.
Seeded sixth, the Catamounts throttled third-seeded Georgia Southern, 11-4, in the opening round to earn a Thursday night date with the No. 2 seed, College of Charleston. Trailing 6-0, the Catamounts rallied in the final four innings, tying the game with a two-RBI single by freshman Tyler White in the ninth before winning in dramatic fashion in the bottom of the 12th inning.
On semifinal Saturday, WCU battled arch-rival Appalachian State twice with both games coming down to the final at bat. In the first game, the seventh-seeded Mountaineers got a pinch-hit walk-off to force the second semi before White again came up huge with a bases-loaded, walk-off single to right to send Western Carolina to the championship game.
The Catamounts 37 seasonal wins were the most under third-year head coach Bobby Moranda, improving upon last year's total by two. With the win over College of Charleston last Thursday, Moranda garnered his 100th victory at the helm in Cullowhee, another milestone accomplished this season.
Six Catamount seniors ended their collegiate careers at the SoCon tournament, three after attempting to bookend their WCU years with championships. The group helped WCU compile a 143-91-1 overall record over the past four seasons. The 2010 senior class included four-year letter winners Dylan de Graaf, Tyler Kirkpatrick and Daniel Ottone as well as Russell Robertson who transferred in after his freshman season with two-year members, Trevor Collias and Jason Sullivan.
Post-Season Notes:
* Western Carolina finished the 2010 season with 37 wins marking the 23rd time since 1984 that a Catamount baseball team had eclipsed the 30-win plateau ... It is also WCU's eighth 30-win season since 2000;
* WCU went 18-6 against nonconference opponents this year ... Among the headline wins for WCU this year included a road win over regional participating - and nationally-ranked - Clemson at Doug Kingsmore Stadium - just the fourth win at Clemson for a Catamount team all-time ... WCU also swept the seasonal series with A-10 regular season champion, Charlotte, while also scoring wins over SEC-foe Tennessee, Illinois from the Big 10 and West Virginia from the Big East;
* Western Carolina posted a 4-1 record against regional participant, College of Charleston, while also winning three of four against SoCon third-place finisher, Georgia Southern ... WCU tallied five wins against teams participating in the NCAA baseball tournament ... All told, the Catamounts scored 15 wins over top 100 RPI squads;
* Overall, WCU closed the year by winning 11 of its final 16 games;
* All of WCU's wins in the SoCon Tournament came after the preceding game had gone into extra innings: the Catamounts' opening round victory over Georgia Southern was delayed after the opening game of the tournament between ASU and CofC went into 11 innings; Elon and The Citadel played extra frames on Thursday before the Catamounts extra inning win over the College of Charleston; and finally, The Citadel eliminated Elon on Saturday afternoon in the semifinals in 10 innings just before WCU bounced Appalachian in the two squad's second semi meeting;
* Two Catamounts earned All-Southern Conference accolades this year as Matt Benedict was a second team starting pitcher both by the coaches and the voting members of the SoCon Sports Media Association (SCSMA) ... Senior outfielder Trevor Collias garnered second team accolades from the media ... Both were the first All-SoCon honors for the duo;
* Western Carolina landed three players on the All-tournament team including catcher Ollie Goulder, outfielder/designated hitter Matt Johns and relief pitcher Brandon Johnson ... Goulder caught every game for WCU in the tournament, driving in four runs on five hits including a double and a home run while Johns was one of just two players to hit two home runs with a tourney batting average right at .300 ... Johnson picked up two wins out of the bullpen, throwing seven innings with a 1.29 ERA and six strikeouts ... The three on the all-tournament team are the most for WCU since landing four on the honorary squad in 2003;
* Matt Benedict and reliever Brandon Johnson each finished with nine wins on the mound this year for WCU, tying the tandem for 13th in WCU's single-season record books ... Johnson has 14 career wins to rank just off the career wins ledger entering his senior season;
* WCU tallied three complete games as tossed by two pitchers - Jason Sullivan threw two CG's while Vance Chavis had one complete game on the year;
* Sophomore transfer Cameron Dullnig was hit by a Western Carolina school-record 25 pitches this year, surpassing the previous record of 22 by Jonathan Greene in 2007 ... Dullnig's 25th HBP of the year loaded the bases in the decisive ninth inning against arch-rival Appalachian State in Saturday evening's victory over the seventh-seeded Mountaineers;
* WCU had seven true freshmen, including five pitchers, see extensive action in 2010 ... Tyler White saw the most playing time, starting 55 of the 59 games in which he played at first base ... Taylor Sandefur moved into the Friday night starting role, making nine starts of his 12 appearances ... Preston Hatcher and T.J. Page both recorded weekend starts for WCU, with the five rookie hurlers all tallying 11-or-more appearances including 19 by walk-on Jeremy Sluder with Adam Curtis finishing 2-0 on the year;
* The Catamount pitching staff is slated to return 11 arms including Benedict and Johnson, both nine-game winners, and each weekend starter;
* Tyler Kirkpatrick was named to the second team ESPN the Magazine All-District III team by CoSIDA in 2010 ... He was the third Catamount student-athlete, joining men's and women's basketball players Jake Robinson and Kristen Feemster, to garner such honors;
* WCU battled through injury to have a successful season ... the Catamounts lost Friday night starter Jason Sullivan mid-way through the season, with his return at the end of the year helping sweep Davidson and make a run in the SoCon tourney ... Other key injuries included starting catcher Stephen Notaro; left-handed reliever Mat Batts ... WCU also missed Ross Heffley in the field at second base a large part of the season after suffering a hamstring injury - the Snellville, Ga., native was able to DH to stay in the lineup;
* Western Carolina opened the season with five-straight victories marking the program's first-ever, 5-0 start to a regular season ... the Catamounts opened 8-1 in 2010, the best start in program history en route to winning 10 of their first 12 games;
* The Catamounts hit 74 home runs on the year despite losing its top returning long-ball hitter in Stephen Notaro early in the season ... Five players recorded double-digit homers including a team-high 14 by Trevor Collias ... It is the 10th time in WCU baseball history since 1969 that a squad has recorded 70-or-more round-trippers in a single-season;
* For a third-straight season under Bobby Moranda, WCU recorded over 100 stolen bases, swiping 114 in 2010 (105 in 2008; 126 in 2009) ... Dylan de Graaf stole 30 bases to rank tied for third in the school's single-season record books with Trevor Collias (30 in 2009) and Martin Barrow (30 in 1998) ... Matt Johns stole 23 to rank tied for 12th with Matt Raleigh (1992) in the single-season record books;
In the WCU Career Record Books:
* Senior Dylan de Graaf stole 55-of-60 bases during his four-year Catamount career to finish ranked seventh in the school record books for stolen bases, while his 60 attempts rank 10th ... In two seasons, Trevor Collias swiped 49 bags to rank 11th on the school's career ledger while his 57 attempts are also 11th;
* Senior Daniel Ottone posted two of the top 10 single-season best performances in saves with eight in 2009 and seven in 2010 ... His 15 career saves rank him sixth in school history.
