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 WCU Baseball team finds out it will play Virginia Commonwealth in the NCAA Regional, held May 30-June 1 in Wilson, N.C. |
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May 26, 2003
Regional Bracket in PDF Format
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Cullowhee, N.C. - Western Carolina will make its 10th NCAA tournament appearance as the third seed facing second-seed Virginia Commonwealth at the regional being played in Wilson, N.C., at Historic Fleming Stadium. Top seed and tournament host North Carolina State will face fourth-seed Le Moyne. The Catamounts learned of their destination Monday afternoon in the Ramsey Center hospitality room watching the ESPN 2 selection show.
Virginia Commonwealth and Western Carolina will square off in the regional opener at 3 p.m. on Friday, May 30, followed by NC State and Le Moyne at 7 p.m. There will be three games on Saturday, at 11 a.m., 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. The championship round will be Sunday beginning at 1 p.m., with a second game, if necessary, following 30 minutes after the conclusion of the first game.
Western Carolina (41-19) is making its first NCAA appearance since 1997 after defeating Georgia Southern for the Southern Conference championship and earning the league's automatic bid. The Catamounts were also the SoCon regular-season champions after posting a 22-8 conference record. WCU won an 11-inning thriller Sunday in Charleston and was led by Tournament MVP Brian Sigmon, who went 2-for-4 with two RBIs on the day.
WCU is led by SoCon Player of the Year Alan Beck, who leads the team with 18 home runs and is second on the team behind fellow SoCon first-teamer Rod Goldston with a .338 batting average. Goldston is batting .353 entering the NCAA Tournament and has 25 doubles on the year. On the mound, the Cats, who set a SoCon tournament record with 29.2 consecutive scoreless innings pitched, are led by Ryan Basner. The senior lowered his season ERA to 2.95 after tossing 11 scoreless innings in two outings in the SoCon tourney.
Virginia Commonwealth (44-11) swept the competition in the Colonial Athletic Conference Tournament and went 4-0 en route to the title to claim the league's automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament. The Rams are making their fifth appearance in the NCAA Tournament in the last six years and enter the weekend having won 11 straight contests and 19 of their last 20.
Junior pitcher and CAA Tournament MVP Matt Prendergrast, who improved to 7-0 and struck out a career-high 14 batters against George Mason in the CAA championship game on Saturday, is the staff ace. The team's starting rotation is a combined 27-7, and the staff as a whole has a 2.65 ERA on the season. Rams slugger Nick Jones, a first-team CAA selection, is batting .372 and has knocked in 49 runs. He leads the team in at-bats, hits, doubles, home runs, RBIs and slugging percentage.
NC State will make its 16th NCAA tournament appearance and will host a regional for the first time. The Wolfpack is coming off a second-place finish at the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament this past weekend in Salem, Va. NC State lost a 6-5 heartbreaker in 11 innings to Georgia Tech, which had to defeat North Carolina, No. 1 Florida State, and NC State all in the same day to capture the championship. The Wolfpack is making its first NCAA appearance since 1999 and will be a No. 1 regional seed for the first time since 1993.
NC State will face Le Moyne College of Syracuse, N.Y., in its first-round match-up. The Dolphins (33-15) earned an automatic berth in the tournament by winning the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championship on Saturday. Le Moyne is making its first appearance in the NCAA Tournament since 1989.
The team's offensive attack is led by MAAC Tournament MVP Eddie Harper, who went 3-for-5 with two runs scored and two RBIs to lead Le Moyne to the conference championship with an 8-4 win over Marist. Harper is second on the team in hitting behind junior right fielder Jeff Justice with a .361 batting average.
NC State Regional Schedule May 30-June 1, 2003 Wilson, N.C. - Fleming StadiumFriday, May 30 Game 1 3:00 pm #3 Western Carolina vs. #2 Virginia Commonwealth Game 2 7:00 pm #4 Le Moyne vs. #1 North Carolina State
Saturday, May 31 Game 3 11:00 am Game 1 Loser vs. Game 2 Loser Game 4 3:00 pm Game 1 Winner vs. Game 2 Winner Game 5 7:00 pm Game 3 Winner vs. Game 4 Loser
Sunday, June 1 Game 6 1:00 pm Game 4 Winner vs. Game 5 Winner Game 7 if necessary
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