Nick Mingione and David Haverstick have recently been added to Bobby Moranda’s staff at Western Carolina. Nick Mingione comes from Kentucky where he served as a volunteer assistant coach for two season. David Haverstick comes from Savannah College of Art and Design where he served as the pitching coach for five seasons. He will continue in the role with the Catamounts. The full release is available here.

Western Carolina has officially announced that Bobby Moranda will be the new head coach of the baseball program. He comes to the school from Georgia Tech where he was the associate head and pitching coach to Danny Hall for six seasons. He also spent time at Wake Forest in a similar position while starting his coaching career as an assistant with Virginia and Eastern Kentucky.

Full Release

Two more candidates, including a member of the Western Carolina baseball “family,” are getting a shot this week at becoming the Catamounts’ next head coach.

Jeff Sziksai, a Reynolds graduate and former WCU player, met with Western officials on Monday in Cullowhee. Georgia Tech associate head coach Bobby Moranda will also get an interview this week.

WCU assistant coach Eric Filipek, former N.C. State assistant Chris Roberts and Vanderbilt assistant Erik Bakich got their chances last week.

Complete story

According to multiple reports around the Internet including the Knoxville News, the University of Tennessee will name Todd Raleigh their next head coach. Raleigh is the current head coach of Western Carolina where he took the team to the NCAA Tournament on two separate occasions including the 2007 season. He compiled a record of 257-209 in eight seasons with the Catamounts.

Also, Tony Delmonico has decided to transfer to Florida State next season. This was expected as Delmonico’s father Rod was an assistant under Mark Martin Sr. before heading to Tennessee.

Knoxville News
Western Carolina Release
Tennessee Release

North Carolina 6 Western Carolina 5

UNC scored two runs in the top of the ninth to grab the lead from Western Carolina and held on to win the NCAA Regional which gives them a spot in the Super Regionals. Josh Horton hit a two run single with two outs in the ninth to give the Tar Heels the lead. Andrew Carignan pitched a scoreless bottom of the ninth to pick up his 14th save and send the Tar Heels back to a Super Regional where they will take on South Carolina. Western Carolina ends the season with a 42-20 overall record.

UNC Recap
Western Carolina Recap

Western Carolina 9 East Carolina 5

The Catamounts picked up a 9-5 victory over intrastate rivals East Carolina to stay alive in the NCAA Tournament. John Ingram went 3-4 with a homer and a triple while driving in three runs. Western Carolina advances to the Championship game of the regional which will take place on Monday against North Carolina. The game was originally scheduled to be played Sunday evening but was postponed until Monday. If WCU wins in the opener, they will play UNC in a second game. East Carolina finishes the season with a 40-23 record.

Western Carolina Recap
East Carolina Recap

Western Carolina 7 Jacksonville 0

The Catamounts picked up a 7-0 victory over the Jacksonville Dolphins. Drew Saberhagen pitched eight strong innings while allowing seven hits without allowing a run to up his record to 9-1. The offensive leader for the Catamounts was Steven Strasbaugh who went 3-5 with an RBI. Jacksonville ends the season with a 34-28 record while WCU will take on East Carolina in an elimination game.

Western Carolina Recap
Jacksonville Recap

UNC 11 East Carolina 10

North Carolina scored three runs in the bottom of ninth to get an 11-10 victory over intrastate rival East Carolina. Dustin Ackley hit a single up the middle with one out in the ninth to drive in Reid Fronk with the winning run. North Carolina reliever Rob Wooten pitched a scoreless top of the ninth as he picked up the win to up his record to 4-1. UNC will take on the winner of the elimination game between Western Carolina and East Carolina on Sunday.

UNC Recap
East Carolina Recap

East Carolina 9 Western Carolina 8

The East Carolina Pirates got a bases loaded single in the bottom of the eighth inning by Jamie Ray to drive home the winning run as the Pirates picked up a 9-8 victory over Western Carolina. East Carolina advances in the winning bracket to take on North Carolina on Saturday. Western Carolina will take on Jacksonville in an elimination game on Saturday.

ECU Recap
WCU Recap

North Carolina 6 Jacksonville 0

Robert Woodard threw eight shutout innings while scattering seven hits as he shutdown the Jacksonville offense in a 6-0 victory. The Carolina offense was led by Tim Federowicz who went 3-4 with 2 RBI. They advance in the winners bracket to take on East Carolina while Jacksonville will take on Western Carolina.

UNC Recap
Jacksonville Recap

The University of North Carolina is hosting the NCAA Regional this weekend at Boshamer Stadium. The three other schools who will be playing in the regional are Western Carolina, East Carolina, and Jacksonville.

North Carolina

The North Carolina Tar Heels (48-12) went undefeated at the ACC Tournament on their way to the ACC Tournament Championship. They are led by Freshman All-American Dustin Ackley who has a .437 average. Josh Horton also provides strong defense and a potent bat in the lineup as he has a .329 average in 60 games. Robert Woodard with a 9-2 record and a 3.29 average. The CBB did check out the Tar Heels this season which can be read by clicking here. They open the tournament on Friday when they play Jacksonville at 6:00 pm.

UNC Tourney Notes

East Carolina

The East Carolina Pirates (39-21) head up the road to Chapel Hill to open up their NCAA Tournament against Western Carolina on Friday at 2 pm. ECU went to the Conference USA championship game but lost to Rice 16-8. They are led by Dale Mollenhauer who leads the team with a .329 average. Josh Dowdy is the top starting pitcher with a 5-1 record in twelve starts.

East Carolina Tourney Notes

Western Carolina

The Western Carolina Catamounts (40-18) enter this weekend coming off the Southern Conference Tournament in which they were eliminated after two games after losing to Georgia Southern and The Citadel. Western Carolina’s top hitter is Kenny Smith who is hitting .396 on the season in 58 games. Drew Saberhagen leads the team with an 8-1 record and a 3.10 ERA. He is the son of former MLB pitcher Brett Saberhagen. They open the tournament against East Carolina on Friday at 2 pm.

Western Carolina Tourney Notes

Jacksonville

The Jacksonville Dolphins enter this weekend with a 34-26 overall record after winning the Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament to get into the NCAA Regional. The Dolphins are led by Pete Clifford who leads the team with a .359 average and in homers with 14. Justin Young has the lowest ERA of the starters at 3.33 but only has a record of 5-5. They will open up against North Carolina at 6 pm on Friday.

Jacksonville Tourney Notes

The CBB predicts UNC to win the regional with East Carolina being the sleeper team from Conference USA.

FROM THE CITADEL PRESS RELEASE

Charleston, S.C. – Seventh-seeded The Citadel knocked off No. 2 Western Carolina, 7-2, in the first round of double-elimination play in the Southern Conference Tournament Tuesday night at Riley Park. Sophomore hurler Matt Crim tossed seven innings of shutout ball and tied a career-best eight strikeouts while freshman catcher Richard Jones belted his third home run in as many games.

The Bulldogs held the Catamounts scoreless all the way until two outs in the bottom of the ninth when Blake Murphy drew a bases loaded walk. Senior hurler Link Saunders came in to record the final out and pick up his sixth save of the year as he caught Kenny Smith looking to end the game.

Jones put the Bulldogs on the board first for the second consecutive night with a solo shot to right in the second inning. Jones has homered in the last three games, belting a round-tripper in his first at bat in the last two. Junior third baseman Matt Arnold was able to race home from third on a passed ball to give the Dogs a 2-0 advantage.

The Citadel struck again in the fourth as senior center fielder Chance Smith ripped a run-scoring double to the gap in left center. Junior left fielder Chris Swauger followed that up with a base hit up the middle to make it 4-0 Bulldogs.

Swauger earned his second RBI of the evening with a solo bomb off the batter’s eye in the ninth before sophomore Sonny Meade was awarded a free pass. Brown followed that up with a two-bagger off the top of the wall in right to plate freshman Matt Simonelli, who entered the game as a pinch-runner for Meade. Jones then sent Brown across the dish with a single to right, extending The Citadel lead to seven.

After holding opponents to 22 consecutive scoreless innings, the Bulldogs surrendered two bases-loaded walks with two outs in the ninth.

Crim (7-3) earned the victory for the Dogs as he tossed 7.0 scoreless innings, allowing only two hits while fanning eight and walking four. Western starter Tyler Sexton (8-3) suffered the loss as he lasted 3.2 frames, allowing four runs (three earned) on eight hits while striking out two and walking one.

Swauger, Jones and Arnold each collected three-hits on the night as Arnold extended his career-best hitting streak to 13 games. Nick Liles lead the Catamount offense with three hits of his own, including a triple.

No. 7 The Citadel will now face No. 3 Elon in game 10 of the SoCon Tournament on Thursday, May 24 at 7:30 p.m. at Riley Park. The Bulldogs were 1-2 versus the Phoenix during the regular season when they visited Riley Park. The Dogs are 2-1 when facing Elon in the SoCon Tournament. The last time the two met in the tourney was in 2006 when The Citadel eliminated top-ranked Elon with a 14-11 victory.

The Southern Conference has announced Alex Garabedian of College of Charleston was named the player of the week for the week ending on April 23rd. He hit .522 (12 for 23) with two homers while scoring five runs and driving six runs in.

College of Charleston Release
Southern Conference Release

The Southern Conference also has announced that Western Carolina’s Greg Holland. He picked up three wins in four appearances last week.

Western Carolina Release
Southern Conference Release

The Western Carolina Catamounts completed a sweep over The Citadel with a 18-3 victory on Sunday. Corey Martin only let up one hit in his six innings of work to get his second win of the year in his first start. The Catamounts jumped on Bulldogs starter Justin Smith for seven runs in the first inning knocking Smith out of the game after recording only a single out. They continued to extend the lead throughout the game as the Bulldogs were not able to recover from the first inning. Western Carolina will return to action when they visit Kentucky on Tuesday before heading to Davidson in the next Southern Conference match-up. The Citadel will play College of Charleston at Riley Park in the annual “Turn Back the Century” game on Wednesday before hosting Wofford.

Western Carolina Recap
The Citadel Recap