May 12, 2008

Cullowhee, N.C. - Western Carolina baseball's final road game of the 2008 season which was scheduled for Tuesday evening at East Tennessee State has been cancelled due to a scheduling conflict.

WCU - which defeated the Buccaneers, 12-11, in Cullowhee on the strength of a two-run, walk-off home run by senior Jason Haynes back on March 25 - was slated to travel to Johnson City on Tuesday. However, officials at ETSU contacted Catamount skipper, Bobby Moranda, on Monday evening and notified him of the scheduling conflict. Essentially, the Bucs have too many games under the NCAA-mandated cap, and therefore had to whittle the excess off its schedule, dooming what was to be WCU's final road contest prior to the tournament.

Western Carolina (27-24, 13-11 SoCon) will wrap up its regular season this Thursday through Saturday as it hosts the second-place College of Charleston Cougars (34-17, 16-8 SoCon) for a three-game Southern Conference series in Cullowhee. The Catamounts are riding a season-long, eight-game winning streak after sweeping both Wofford and The Citadel in league play, with non-conference wins over Tennessee and Gardner-Webb in the mix.

Charleston, which has won four-straight since being swept in Greensboro by the Spartans, can still claim a share of first-place - and the top seed in the upcoming conference tournament - while the Catamounts still have a shot at a top-four finish in the final standings.

First pitch on both Thursday and Friday at Childress Field/Hennon Stadium is set for 7:00 pm, with the finale slated for Saturday afternoon at 2:00 pm. Fans can follow all of the action on live GameTracker, presented by Carolina West Sports Medicine and the WestCare Health System, by logging onto www.CatamountSports.com.