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Cullowhee, N.C. – Western Carolina baseball opens a five-game week on Wednesday (March 4) afternoon, traveling to Athens, Ga., to face 11th-ranked Georgia in midweek nonconference action at Foley Field. First pitch is scheduled for 3 p.m.
Wednesday’s game can be seen on the SEC Network+ (paid subscription required) and through the Watch ESPN app. Live stats through StatBroadcast are available online through a link at CatamountSports.com.
WCU (8-3) returns to action after sharing the title at East Carolina’s 23rd annual Keith LeClair Classic last weekend in Greenville, N.C., downing Troy, picked third in the Sun Belt Conference preseason poll, before blanking the host Pirates at Clark-LeClair Stadium. Both WCU and ECU finished with 2-1 marks over the three-game weekend, with WCU falling to Big Ten foe Rutgers and ECU being shut out by the Catamounts.
Georgia (11-2) enters the midweek tilt winners of five straight, throttling in-state foe Kennesaw State 11-1 on the road Tuesday night in eight innings. The Bulldogs also scored four weekend wins over Oakland in Athens, scoring three seven-inning, run-ruled victories. Georgia’s last loss came one week ago, falling to Troy 6-5 in 12 innings last Wednesday (Feb. 25).
About Western Carolina:
The Catamounts enter the week winners of four of their last five, claiming the series finale over Bowling Green to win the series and taking their midweek home game over Akron, 12-2, in eight innings. Last weekend, WCU won 2-of-3 at the Keith LeClair Classic, with wins over Troy and ECU and a loss to Rutgers.
WCU enters the week fifth in the SoCon with a collective .265 team batting average with 32 extra-base hits, including 22 doubles and 10 home runs. The Catamounts are averaging 5.5 runs per game on 8.5 hits per contest, while limiting teams to 4.8 runs on 8.8 hits coming on a .255 batting average against. WCU’s pitchers have 96 strikeouts, including 32 looking, the second-most in the SoCon.
Catcher Noah Quarless continues to lead the team with a .480 batting average, second in the SoCon through 10 games. He also boasts a team-best 10-game reached base safely streak after Mason Holton saw his 20-game streak – 11-straight to conclude 2025 and the first nine games of 2026 – come to a close in Greenville.
Wednesday marks WCU’s first game against a nationally-ranked team since falling to No. 3 Tennessee and at No. 13 Wake Forest back in 2024. The Catamounts have dropped 21 consecutive games to nationally-ranked competition, last pulling an upset at No. 20 NC State back in 2017. WCU’s last win over a ranked SEC foe came in the 2014 season opener at No. 2 Mississippi State.
WCU’s roster features eight players from Georgia, hailing from Acworth (92 miles to Athens); Atlanta (72 miles); Chester (133 miles); Dunwoody (63 miles); Loganville (38 miles); Ocilla (204 miles); Roswell (75 miles) and Warner Robins (113 miles)
About the Southern Conference:
Entering Wednesday, five of the eight Southern Conference teams have winning records, led by Mercer at 11-1, with VMI (10-2), ETSU (9-3), WCU (8-3), and Wofford (8-4) all above .500. The Citadel (4-5) sits just below the mark, with Samford – which was swept by Georgia on Feb. 20-22 – two games below .500 entering the week.
WCU was picked fifth in the preseason SoCon coaches poll, with Samford selected to win the league, just ahead of Mercer in the tabulations.
About the Georgia Bulldogs:
After Tuesday night’s eight-inning victory at Kennesaw State, seven of Georgia’s first 13 games have ended early with the run-rule. The Bulldogs have played one extra-inning affair, last Wednesday’s 6-5 loss to Troy in 12 innings that came just two days before the Catamounts used a pair of Walker Fox home runs – an inside-the-park two-run homer and a ninth-inning solo shot – to upend the Trojans in Greenville, N.C.
A perennial power, the Bulldogs enter Wednesday batting an impressive .353 collectively as a team – top five nationally – with a .706 team slugging percentage, collecting 29 doubles and an NCAA-leading 40 home runs. Georgia has outscored the opposition this year 146-to-34 and has 69 more base hits than its opponents, 149-to-80. The Bulldogs average 11.2 runs per game on 11.5 hits, while limiting foes to a .212 batting average against with just an average of 2.6 runs on 6.2 hits per game.
Georgia was picked ninth in the 16-team SEC preseason baseball poll. Both preseason All-SEC teams were void of a Bulldog player, though a pair of Bulldogs – junior catcher Daniel Jackson and senior third baseman Michael O’Shaughnessy – both landed on Baseball America’s preseason “All-Underrated Team,” which also featured WCU’s Trent Turner.
Western Carolina vs. Georgia – All-Time Series:
The Catamounts and Bulldogs have met 54 times previously on the baseball diamond, with WCU trailing in the all-time series, 18-36. A combined 46 of the 54 meetings have been played in Athens, Ga., with Georgia winning 32 and WCU claiming 14, including two-straight in 2012 and 2013. UGA won the last two meetings, 6-0 in 2016 and 6-2 in 2014.
WCU and Georgia were scheduled to meet in the 2023 season, but the game at Foley Field was rained out. The two have played eight games in Cullowhee all-time, splitting those series meetings evenly, 4-4 – but have not met at Childress Field / Hennon Stadium since 2007.
On Deck for Western Carolina:
Following Wednesday’s midweek matchup with the SEC’s Bulldogs, the Catamounts head to the Queen City, Charlotte, N.C., for a four-game weekend against a pair of opponents – the Radford Highlanders and the host Charlotte 49ers.
WCU faces Radford twice at Noon on Friday (March 6) and Saturday (March 7), with the second meeting coming in the front end of a doubleheader. The Catamounts face Charlotte around 4 p.m. on Saturday and again in a Sunday matinee at 1 p.m. at Hayes Stadium.
At present, only Saturday afternoon’s meeting with Charlotte will have coverage through ESPN+ (paid subscription required). Depending upon results from the 2026 Ingles Southern Conference Basketball Championship, additional games could be added to the Catamount Sports Network (CSN) audio schedule through the weekend. Live stats for each game will be available online through links at CatamountSports.com.
Keep track of everything related to Catamount baseball and WCU Athletics through social media outlets on Facebook (fb.com/CatamountSports), Twitter (@Catamounts, @CatamountBSB), and Instagram (wcu_catamounts, catamountbsb).
