Baseball Opens Home Schedule with WCU on Wednesday

CLINTON, S.C. – The Presbyterian College baseball team opens its home schedule on Wednesday afternoon as the Blue Hose welcome in Western Carolina to the PC Baseball Complex. This home opener begins an eight home game stretch over the next nine for the Blue Hose.

GAMEDAY CENTRAL
WHAT: Western Carolina (2-2) vs Presbyterian (1-2)
WHERE: PC Baseball Complex (Clinton, S.C.)
WHEN: 3 p.m.
THE SERIES (Since 2008): WCU Leads 4-3

FOLLOW THE ACTION
LIVE STATS: Stat Broadcast
LIVE AUDIO: Fox Sports Spartanburg (98.3 FM, 1400 AM)
TWITTER: @PresbyterianBSB
GAME NOTES: Presbyterian Notes

ON THE MOUND
Wednesday
WCU – RHP Coby Ingle (0-0, 2.57 ERA, 13 K at NCSU in 2021)
PC – LHP Mason McDaniel (0-0, 27.00 ERA, 0 K)

About the Blue Hose
• The Blue Hose are set to open their home slate on Wednesday with a visit from Western Carolina out of the SoCon. PC enters Wednesday's action off of a 1-2 weekend against Georgetown while the Catamounts went 2-2 against Akron in their opening series of the 2023 campaign.

Newcomers Getting PC First Win
• On Saturday, Blue Hose pitchers Fenix DiGiacomo and Luke Gibson started their Blue Hose careers strong as PC downed the Hoyas 5-2 in the middle game of the three-game weekend series. DiGiacomo got the ball rolling on Saturday with a start spanning 5.2 innings allowing four hits and one run en route to a victory in his PC debut. Gibson finished it off for the Blue Hose recording the final 10 outs allowing one solo home run and striking out four to earn the save. Gibson and DiGiacomo were teammates at Patrick Henry CC before coming to Clinton for the 2023 season.

Scouting the Catamounts
• Western Carolina comes into Wednesday's action with a 2-2 record following a home series split with Akron on its opening weekend as they won 6-1 and 11-6 in the middle two games of the series.
• Pascanel Ferreras leads the Catamounts with a .438 average which includes a pair of doubles and three RBIs to his stat line.
• Jordan Starkes checks in with a .375 average and Drew Needham sits at .357 following the first weekend.
• Kyle Riesselmann is the Catamounts top starting arm tossing five shutout innings with seven strikeouts. Matt Schepel allowed one earned run in five innings with six strikeouts.
• Gavin Mortenson tossed 3.1 relief innings not allowing an earned run with four strikeouts against Akron.

Head to Head vs the Catamounts
• Western Carolina holds a 4-3 advantage over Presbyterian in the all-time series with the Blue Hose taking down WCU 11-8 in 10 innings in Cullowhee last April.
• In last year's two meetings against WCU, Chase Hughes went 3-for-4 while Brody Fahr was 4-for-8 with a double. Jay Wetherington was 4-for-9 with a double in the two contests a season ago.
• On the mound, Tanner Smith tossed three scoreless innings against WCU last year and Colbey Klepper went two scoreless in relief last season.

2023 Preseason Honors
• Catcher Dalton Reeves was named to the league's all-conference team as selected by Perfect Game.
• DI Baseball has tabbed a host of Blue Hose on the conference's top prospects in the next few drafts. RHP Duncan Howard, RHP Fenix DiGiacomo, Catcher Dalton Reeves, RHP Colbey Klepper, RHP Tanner Smith and OF Jay Wetherington were apart of the 2023 Draft Rankings.
• Joel Dragoo was tabbed by the publication in the 2024 Big South Prospect Rankings.
• Jake Randolph, Trey Fenderson and Amman Dewberry were selected to the Impact Freshman in the league on the list by DI Baseball.

Newcomers Join the Blue Hose Family
• Head Coach Elton Pollock was busy in the offsesaon with the addition of 16 new faces to the Blue Hose family.
• The incoming class includes Evan Cuervo, Jay Allred, Jake Randolph, Trey Fenderson, Travis Camp, William Nobles, Ryan Becker, Lorenzo Rios, Kyle Mueller, Luke Gibson, Tyler Mecchella, Fenix DiGiacomo, Mason McDaniel, Eli Bowery, Jeremiah Hampton, Amman Dewberry.

Pollock Selected to USA Baseball 13U/14U Development Program Staff
• Presbyterian College head baseball coach Elton Pollock was selected as one of four DI head baseball coaches to serve as managers during the 2022 13U/14U Team USA Athlete Development Program in Cary, N.C. last summer
• Pollock was joined by Erik Bakich (Michigan), Randy Hood (UNC-Wilmington) and Omar Johnson (Jackson State) as team managers in 2022. Additionally, a group of accomplished high school coaches will join them as team assistant and pitching coaches.
• The program which will now welcome 72 athletes to the USA Baseball National Training Complex for the first time, will feature advanced on-field skills development with positional and team-fundamental drills, along with ongoing evaluation by the coaching staff. The participants will be split across four teams and compete head-to-head in a series of games. Additionally, the athletes will participate in off-field educational seminars while gaining additional exposure to professional scouts and college recruiters.

Scouting the 2023 Season
• The 2023 season nine games against teams from the ACC, SEC and Big 10 conferences. PC is also set to play four tournament over the span of eight games throughout 2023 season.
• The 2023 schedule opens with a trip to North Carolina to battle Georgetown in a three-game series from February 17-19 at the USA Baseball Complex in Cary.
• The home slate begins on February 22nd with a visit from Western Carolina before hosting a three-game series against Toledo, Northwestern and Michigan State on three consecutive days beginning on February 24.
• Following a midweek trip to Georgia (Feb. 28), the Blue Hose return home for a three-game series against Georgia State (March 3-5) and close out the home stretch with a visit from Western Michigan (March 7).
• The Blue Hose embark on a five-game road trip beginning with a trip to Clemson (March 8) before heading to Eastern Kentucky (March 10-12). The road swing continues midweek matchup against South Carolina (March 14). PC will then travel to Fluor Field in Greenville home of the Greenville Drive for a contest against Duke on that Wednesday night.
• The Blue & Garnet open conference play on March 17 with a three-game set at High Point. The Blue Hose with a five-game home stretch beginning with a midweek battle against Davidson (March 21) before welcoming Charleston Southern (March 24-26) to Clinton. The home stretch wraps up with a visit from Wofford on March 29.
• Presbyterian opens the month of April with a three-game set at UNC Asheville (March 31-April 2) before traveling to Davidson on April 4. The Blue Hose welcome in Campbell (April 6-8) for an Easter weekend Thursday-Saturday series.
• The Blue Hose embark on a four-game road swing following Easter at Wofford (April 11) before battling at Winthrop (April 14-16).
• PC returns home for five consecutive games beginning on April 19 in a midweek battle against ETSU before hosting Gardner-Webb (April 21-23). The homestand wraps up with a Tuesday afternoon tilt against Alabama State (April 25). The Blue Hose close out April with a trip down the road to Spartanburg to battle USC Upstate (April 28-30).
• In the month of May, PC will spend a majority of its time away from Clinton with road series against Miami (Fla.) (May 5-7) and Radford (May 18-20). The Blue Hose also have midweek contests at Western Carolina (May 9) and Alabama State (May 16).
• The lone home series for PC in the month of May will come with Longwood visiting Clinton for a three-game set beginning on May 12-14.
• The 2023 Ingles Big South Baseball Championship will be played at Truist Point in High Point, N.C. The four-team tournament to determine the Big South's automatic bid recipient to the NCAA Championship will be held Thursday-Saturday, May 25-27.

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Players Mentioned

#5 Joel Dragoo: INF; 6' 2"; Sophomore; R/R

#2 Brody Fahr: INF; 5' 11"; Junior; L/R

#25 Duncan Howard: RHP; 6' 3"; Junior; R/R

#11 Chase Hughes: INF; 6' 2"; Senior; R/R

#34 Colbey Klepper: RHP; 6' 4"; Senior; R/R

#32 Dalton Reeves: C; 6' 5"; Junior; L/R

#16 Tanner Smith: RHP; 6' 2"; Senior; R/R

#21 Jay Wetherington: OF; 5' 9"; Junior; L/L

#7 Evan Cuervo: OF; 6' 4"; Freshman; L/R

#8 Jay Allred: OF; 6' 2"; Freshman; L/R

Players Mentioned

#5 Joel Dragoo
: 6' 2"; Sophomore; R/R
: INF

#2 Brody Fahr
: 5' 11"; Junior; L/R
: INF

#25 Duncan Howard
: 6' 3"; Junior; R/R
: RHP

#11 Chase Hughes
: 6' 2"; Senior; R/R
: INF

#34 Colbey Klepper
: 6' 4"; Senior; R/R
: RHP

#32 Dalton Reeves
: 6' 5"; Junior; L/R
: C

#16 Tanner Smith
: 6' 2"; Senior; R/R
: RHP

#21 Jay Wetherington
: 5' 9"; Junior; L/L
: OF

#7 Evan Cuervo
: 6' 4"; Freshman; L/R
: OF

#8 Jay Allred
: 6' 2"; Freshman; L/R
: OF