Western Carolina baseball continues its first road swing of the 2024 season this weekend as the Catamounts travel to Tallahassee, Fla., for a three-game set against Atlantic Coast Conference member Florida State on Mike Martin Field at Dick Howser Stadium. The nonconference series opens at 5 p.m. on Friday with the scheduled first pitch at 2 p.m. on Saturday and 1 p.m. on Sunday.
Each game is slated to be broadcast on the ACC Network Extra (paid subscription required) and through the Watch ESPN app. Links to live audio by Florida State and live stats through StatBroadcast are linked to the Catamount baseball schedule at CatamountSports.com.
Western Carolina (3-1) suffered its first setback of the season in the midweek, falling at Big South Conference preseason favorite USC Upstate, 16-9, at Harley Park on Wednesday. The Catamounts scored five runs between the fourth and fifth innings to take an 8-6 lead before a costly five-run fifth led the Spartans to the win. Upstate led off the decisive inning with a solo homer ahead of four HBPs and two walks to take a lead it would never relinquish.
Trent Turner and Hayden Friese both collected three hits in the loss to lead four multiple-hit games with Nate Stocum and Landon Mowery tallying two knocks apiece including the first career triple for the latter. James Hinson, Kyle Riesselmann, and Kyle Harbison each drove in two runs on the day.
Three Catamount regulars enter the weekend batting over the .500 threshold with Mowery, a freshman infielder, boasting a .556 average with a pair of extra-base hits and three RBI. He and transfer teammate Tafton Hensley – who should see time in the outfield this weekend – are among just six players in the Southern Conference with triples this year. Turner, who transferred to WCU from USC Union, has a SoCon-leading 11 base hits through four games that includes a couple of doubles and a home run.
In terms of power, senior outfielder Nate Stocum is second in the conference with three home runs on the year, each of which came in last Saturday’s 16-3 win over Iona on opening weekend. The Raleigh, N.C., product also ranks tied for fourth in the conference with eight RBI.
The same trio of starting pitchers will toe the rubber this weekend for the Catamounts, albeit in a different order. Opening day starter Cannon Pickell (0-0) moves to the backend of the rotation on Sunday, moving two-way starter and left-hander Riesselmann (1-0) to the Saturday start. Team leader with six strikeouts in his WCU debut, transfer RHP Spenser Hamblen (1-0) will get the ball in Friday’s series opener.
Florida State has won its first three games of the 2024 season, claiming an emotional season-opener 11-0 over Butler on a day the Seminoles mourned the passing of long-time head baseball coach Mike Martin who wore jersey No. 11. FSU took two from the Bulldogs before winning at in-state foe Jacksonville in the midweek thanks in part to 10 strikeouts over 3.2 innings by reliever Carson Dorsey.
FSU’s projected Friday starter Cam Leiter – the nephew of former major leaguers Al Leiter and Mark Leiter – claimed ACC Pitcher of the Week accolades on Monday after striking out a career-high 13 over his scoreless, five-inning start with just one hit allowed. Saturday’s starter LHP Jamie Arnold likewise opened the year with a win, allowing an unearned run on just two hits with nine strikeouts against Butler.
Five Seminoles with two or more games played are hitting over .500 to start the year as the squad is batting .370 collectively through three games with nine extra-base hits – four doubles, a triple, and four home runs. Cam Smith (6-for-12, .500) and Drew Faurot (6-for-15, .400) pace the team with six base knocks. Outfielder James Tibbs III, who appeared on various preseason All-ACC and All-America (3rd team) squads from Perfect Game, has a team-high seven RBI.
FSU is led by second-year head coach Link Jarrett who is a 1994 graduate of the program and has ties to the SoCon after spending the 2013-19 seasons in the UNCG dugout. After leaving Greensboro for Notre Dame, Jarrett was twice named the National Coach of the Year (2021, 2022).
Western Carolina and Florida State have met just five times previously on the baseball diamond with the Seminoles winning four straight since the Catamounts claimed the first meeting back in 1992 in the opening round of the NCAA baseball regional. WCU’s Keith LeClair-led squad behind strong pitching by Phillip Grundy blanked the ‘Noles in a 1-0 victory before the two teams met again in the regional final. Jarrett, a freshman infielder at FSU, made a tremendous play for the final out of the series that sent his Seminoles on to Omaha.
All five series meetings have come in Florida, most recently with a two-game midweek set in late February 2022 against top-ranked Florida State. Current WCU head coach Alan Beck was a member of that ‘02 squad that traversed south to Tallahassee.
WCU has played 12 of the current 14 members of the Atlantic Coast Conference all-time, having never played Boston College or Pitt. The Catamounts are a collective 62-162 against the current memberships with Clemson (81, 16-65) representing the most-played. Eight of the ACC’s schools can trace their conference lineage to the Southern Conference which was founded back in 1921 – the nation’s fifth-oldest conference (Clemson, Duke, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, NC State, Virginia, Virginia Tech, and Wake Forest). The SoCon gave rise to two of today’s premier conferences, the ACC and the Southeastern (SEC) Conference.
After concluding the four-game swing in Florida this weekend, the Catamounts return home for five in a row at Childress Field / Hennon Stadium in Cullowhee beginning on Tuesday (Feb. 27) as WCU welcomes mountain-rival UNC Asheville to Cullowhee for the front end of a nonconference-home-and-home with the Bulldogs. Georgia State comes to town for four including a Saturday doubleheader next weekend, March 1-3.
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