March 14, 2008

Cullowhee, N.C. - The Catamount baseball, softball and women's soccer teams will all be in action this weekend beginning Saturday afternoon. Baseball hosts Hartford for a three-game, non-conference set, while the Softball team opens its home slate by hosting Florida Gulf Coast in double-header action, both beginning at 1:00 pm.

Fans are encouraged to check CatamountSports.com throughout the weekend - and especially on Saturday - as the forecast is calling for rain and thunderstorms across Western North Carolina. Any weather-related schedule changes will be posted promptly - if there are no updates, then the weekend's activities will commence at their regularly scheduled times.

Both softball and all three baseball games can be followed on-line with live GameTracker, presented by Carolina West Sports Medicine and the WestCare Health System.

Saturday's double-header for the Western Carolina softball team is its first home appearance of the season at the on-campus Catamount Softball Complex. The Catamounts have played 18 games on the road including three tournaments. WCU was scheduled to make its first appearance in the Georgia Tech Buzz Classic back on March 7-9, but the tournament was cancelled due to inclement weather. Western Carolina has not played a game in 10 days.

Western Carolina (4-14) faces a solid Florida Gulf Coast team that has a record of 29-9 and is coming off a sweep of Southern Conference member, Appalachian State - who the Catamounts will face Sunday and Monday in its conference opener. WCU and FGCU met earlier in the season in the Florida Gulf Coast tournament, with the Eagles winning, 5-2.

Junior shortstop Heather Pritchard leads the Catamounts at the plate with a .294 batting average that includes 15 hits with two for extra bases. Fellow junior Beth Hauser leads the club in RBI with 10 while red-shirt sophomore Mollie Fowler has the only homerun for Western, notching the long ball in the 5-4 win over South Dakota State.

First pitch between the Catamounts and the Eagles is slated for 1:00 pm.

Also returning home for the first time since late February, the Catamount baseball team welcomes the Hartford Hawks in for a three-game non-conference set. The two are slated for a double-header on Saturday afternoon beginning at 1:00 pm, with the series finale getting underway at 2:00 pm on Sunday at Childress Field / Hennon Stadium.

Western (4-9) has dropped six of its last seven games, with three coming at the hands of teams ranked inside the top five in national rankings. A trio of underclassmen hold three of the top four batting averages for the Catamounts, who are 2-1 at home on the season. Freshman Matt Johns leads the way with a .348 average (8-of-23), just ahead of sophomore Nick Liles at .344 (21-of-61). Senior Jason Haynes is third at .342 (13-of-38) with another second-year starter, Brent Greer, fourth at .333 (17-of-51).

Senior Blake Murphy leads WCU with five home runs on the season, with sophomore Tyler Kirkpatrick and junior transfer J.C. Lyons tied for second with four round-trippers this season.

Hartford (1-1), which is a member of the America East Conference, has seen four of its six scheduled games postponed on the year. Slated to open its season on March 5, the Hawks have only taken the field twice, falling to Villanova and downing La Salle.

Like softball, Saturday's baseball double-header is slated to begin at 1:00 pm.

The WCU women's soccer team will open its off-season competitions by hosting Mercer at the Catamount Athletic Complex on Sunday afternoon at 1:15 pm. Due to the threat of inclement weather, the game was moved from its original scheduled time on Saturday afternoon. It is the first of five spring competition days for the Catamounts, and the first of three that will be held in Cullowhee.

Also on Sunday, the WCU women's tennis team - winners of three of its last four - travels to Davidson to face the Wildcats in SoCon action. Match time is set for 1:00 pm.

For a complete recap of all of the weekend's activity, be sure to check back at CatamountSports.com.