Cullowhee, N.C. – Twenty-two home dates and 14 combined games against teams representing the Power Five conferences comprise Western Carolina’s 2016 baseball schedule unveiled this week by head coach Bobby Moranda. Three-game road series against Georgia Tech, Indiana, and Kansas State, road games at both North Carolina and Georgia, as well as home dates against Clemson and Virginia Tech headline the regular season calendar.
WCU’s aggressive 55-game schedule opens with a three-game tournament at UNC Wilmington Feb. 19-21, and culminates with the annual Southern Conference Baseball Championship May 25-29, 2016 at Fluor Field at the West End in Greenville, S.C.
“We’ve compiled probably one of the most challenging — if not the most challenging — schedule in our program’s history,” said Moranda of the 2016 slate. “This schedule and the great competition will go a long way in getting us prepared for a tough Southern Conference regular season and year-end tournament,” said Moranda. “We feel the better the opponents we schedule, the better we’ll be prepared.”
All told in nonconference play in 2016, the Catamounts will play seven games against the Atlantic Coast Conference, three apiece against the Big Ten, Big XII, and Mid-American Conference, and one against the American Athletic Conference.
“Our schedule features a lot of road games and a lot of travel miles. Playing away from home and in some hostile environments will help toughen our team as it creates adversity for us to scratch and claw through and creates the need for us to elevate our game,” Moranda added.
Western Carolina begins the 2016 season with four-consecutive games away from home beginning with a three-game road trip to the coast of North Carolina in tournament play that resembles a NCAA regional field, Feb. 19-21. WCU will face tournament host, UNC Wilmington, Richmond and St. John’s in the Buffalo Wild Wings “Battle at the Beach” to open the season. It is the second-straight year that WCU has competed in a Seahawk-hosted tournament in Wilmington.
Outside of Southern Conference play this season, WCU hosts one, three-game weekend series as the Warhawks of the University of Louisiana at Monroe (ULM) make their first-ever appearance on opening weekend at Childress Field / Hennon Stadium (Feb. 26-28). WCU also has three, nonconference home-and-home series slated for 2016 including the annual meetings with Clemson and mountain-rival, UNC Asheville. The Catamounts host the Tigers on March 30 before traveling to Doug Kingsmore Stadium on April 12, with the meetings against UNCA coming in reverse order, on the road Feb. 24 and at home on April 19. The third midweek home-and-home is with Gardner-Webb, in Cullowhee on March 16 and Boiling Springs on April 27.
The Catamounts additionally host four home stand alone dates out of conference with two midweek games against Niagara (March 1-2), Presbyterian (March 8), and ACC-foe, Virginia Tech (April 20).
Western Carolina’s schedule has four, three-game nonconference road series including three-consecutive through the month of March. The Catamounts travel to Atlanta for a three-game set against perennial ACC power, Georgia Tech (March 4-6) before a road swing to Bloomington, Ind., to face the Indiana Hoosiers for the first time, March 11-13. WCU then travels to Manhattan, Kansas for the first-ever meeting with the Kansas State Wildcats (March 18-20). The final nonconference regular season road series is at Kent State (May 19-21) out of the Mid-American Conference.
The Catamounts also have three additional single road game trips beginning with a game against North Carolina (March 22) — WCU’s first trip to Boshamer Stadium since the 2007 NCAA Chapel Hill Regional. The Purple & Gold also visit Georgia (May 11) and Cincinnati (May 17) for single games.
Western Carolina plays an equal number of home Southern Conference series as it does on the road with four apiece in 2016. The Catamounts host East Tennessee State (March 25-27) in its first return trip to Cullowhee since rejoining the league a year ago before back-to-back series against the two teams that decided the 2015 tournament championship — Samford (April 15-17) and Mercer (April 29-May 1). The Catamounts wrap-up league play in mid-May by hosting UNCG May 13-15.
The road league series include visiting Wofford (April 1-3) and VMI (April 8-10) on consecutive weekends before traveling to Riley Park in Charleston, S.C., to face The Citadel April 22-24. The trip to Lexington, Va., is the first for the Catamounts since 2001. WCU’s final conference road series is May 6-8 against the Furman Paladins.
Western Carolina begins official team practice on Jan. 29, 2016 ahead of its Feb. 19 season-opener at UNC Wilmington.
Among the position players entering 2016, the Catamounts return 12 letter winners from a season ago including three players that started each of the 51 games a season ago including senior outfielder Kramer Farrell, junior Matt Smith, and sophomore infielder Brett Pope. Senior all-conference catcher Danny Bermudez additionally tallied 48 starts a season ago.
On the mound, a total of 10 pitchers return from last year, nine of which recorded a start. Eight of WCU’s hurlers tallied 20-or-more innings pitched a season ago including a team-high 75.0 innings pitched for junior LHP Bryan Sammons.
WCU’s 2016 roster includes nine newcomers with five freshmen and four junior transfers.
2016 Western Carolina Baseball Schedule
