UNC Asheville Baseball Ends Three-Year Mountain Rivalry Drought, Tops WCU 8-4

For the first time since 2017, UNC Asheville beat Western Carolina at Greenwood Field, snapping a nine-year home drought in the Mountain Rivalry with an 8-4 win Tuesday afternoon. The victory also marked the Bulldogs' first win in the Mountain Rivalry since 2022. The win came in the 85th all-time series meeting between the programs, with WCU having led the series 59-25, including four straight victories at Greenwood Field dating to 2019.

Western Carolina struck first, pushing across one run in the second inning and another in the third for a 2-0 lead, before the Bulldogs answered with four runs in the fourth to take charge. Owen Michelson greeted a new Western Carolina pitcher with a single through the right side, Jake Minarik singled up the middle to put two on with no one out, and a perfectly-executed double steal loaded the bases before Ben Green drew a walk. Tyler Parks then drove a double into the left field corner to tie the game, scoring Michelson and Minarik. Zeb Swangim followed with a single up the middle to score Green and Parks and give the Bulldogs a 4-2 lead heading to the fifth.

Western Carolina tied the game with two runs in the top of the fifth, before the teams headed to the bottom of the sixth still deadlocked. The middle innings became a chess match of stranded baserunners. The Bulldogs left the bases loaded in the bottom of the fifth, and the Catamounts did the same in the top of the sixth. Ryland Howell and Matthew Hall combined to work out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam in that sixth inning. Hall earned the win, improving to 2-0 on the season.

The Bulldogs seized the lead for good in the bottom of the sixth when Blaize Johnson scored on a groundout by Patrick Gillen. Johnson had reached on a one-out walk earlier in the inning before scoring the eventual go-ahead run on the bases-loaded grounder to third.

Logan Lowe opened the eighth with a double to right center, moving to third on a deep fly ball to center by Johnson for the first out. Asheville capped the rally when two runs scored on a Ben Green triple, pushing the final to 8-4.

Western Carolina managed just three base hits, all before the end of the third inning, as Catamount batters failed to record a hit over the final 6.1 innings. The Catamounts drew six walks as a team and had five batters hit by pitches but could not convert.

With the loss, Western Carolina fell to 17-9 overall and 2-1 in the Southern Conference, and heads down I-26 this weekend to face The Citadel in Charleston in a three-game SoCon series. UNC Asheville, now 13-12, travels to Spartanburg this weekend to open Big South Conference play at USC Upstate.