Western Carolina University

Cullowhee, N.C. - Seventeen players from Western Carolina's 2015 baseball team are playing between 10 different teams across five leagues this summer across the nation. A total of 11 Catamounts are scheduled to be in action across southeastern-based leagues during the summer months.

WCU has sent five players to three different teams in the Valley League with four Catamounts playing together on one squad in the California Collegiate League. Both the Southern Collegiate and Carolina Virginia Collegiate Leagues have three Catamounts with two playing as teammates in the New England Collegiate Baseball League.

All told, 12 Catamount teammates will play alongside WCU counterparts this summer, headlined by four traveling west to suit-up for the San Luis Obispo (SLO) Blues in the California Collegiate League. Pitchers Korey Anderson, Brendan Nail and Bryan Sammons are joined by West Coast product, Ellensburg, Wash., native Kramer Ferrell with the Blues' squad. It is the third-straight year that WCU has sent players to the Central California coast.

Five players are playing in the Valley League including two sets of teammates. Freshmen Brett Pope and Caleb Robinson will suit-up for the Charlottesville (Va.) Tom Sox while Spencer Holcomb and Matthew Koehler are both on the Woodstock (Va.) River Bandits. Rising senior Reece Strong is the fifth Catamount in the Valley, returning to play for the Aldie (Va.) Senators.

For the first time in recent years - at least since Aaron Kirby played for the Keene (N.H.) Swamp Bats in 1999 - two WCU Catamounts have ventured into the northeast with the New England Collegiate Baseball League. Rising seniors Danny Bermudez and Colton Davis are playing for the Vermont Mountaineers in Montpelier, Vt., less than an hour away from the home of the other NCAA's Catamounts - the University of Vermont in Burlington, Vt.

Jason Smith and Dillon Bray will again team on the Kernersville Bulldogs squad in the Carolina Virginia Collegiate League where they will compete against WCU teammate, Garrett Brown, who is playing for the Montreat Mountaineers. Smith played for the Bulldogs as a freshman before venturing into the Valley League last summer, while Bray returns to Kernersville for a second-straight summer.

Three Catamounts call the Southern Collegiate League home this summer with Pierce Suttles playing close to home in Cornelius, N.C., with the Lake Norman Copperheads; Drew Bolick pitching for the Piedmont (S.C.) Pride; and Corey Sikes pitching for the Showcase Baseball Academy (SBA) Bones in Charlotte.

Four Catamount baseball players - J.D. Long, B.J. Nobles, Matt Smith and Jonathan Waszak - are not expected to play this summer coming off of injuries suffered during the 2015 season.

2015 Catamounts Playing Summer League Baseball: