Like a baseball team’s manager gearing up for spring training, the folks in the Western  Carolina University Office of Alumni Engagement are sharpening their pencils and setting the starting lineup for the second annual Ballparks and Brews Tour.

Launched last year, the event is designed to bring together members of the WCU family for a series of gatherings at baseball stadiums across the Southeast.

Smoky Mountain High School baseball team held a special “Youth Night” Thursday night to give the kids a wonderful experience with the varsity players.

Little League and youth players enjoyed an on-field experience at the Smoky Mountain baseball field just prior to the game between the Smoky Mountain Mustangs and the Tuscola Mountaineers. 

Longtime Western Carolina University supporters and friends have come together to honor the legacy and dedication of the university’s former sports information director, Steve White, a man many affectionately refer to as “the walking encyclopedia of Catamount athletics.”

WCU alumni David and Joy Wiggins have made a lead gift to the university’s “Fill the Western Sky” comprehensive fundraising campaign and chosen to direct their gift toward the naming of the football stadium’s new Western Skybox media center in White’s honor.

People from these mountains have gone on to do some pretty great things, but it’s hard to imagine someone in quite a while who’s been a point of pride like Cal Raleigh.

Raleigh, an all-star catcher for the Seattle Mariners, was a star in both basketball and baseball at Smoky Mountain High School. He was even a bat boy at Western Carolina University, where his father played catcher and was inducted into the athletics hall of fame in November. 

Last September, when Hurricane Helene brought flooding to much of the region, the little league baseball field behind the Waynesville Elks Club was swamped by several inches of water, dugouts were destroyed and lights were carried downstream along with tons of other debris. But now, hundreds of thousands of dollars and hundreds of person-hours later, action has returned to that hallowed diamond. 

 Watching Cal Raleigh win the final round of the T-Mobile Home Run Derby on TV last week was a special kind of thrill for Steve Wilson, who works in Purchasing, Shipping and Receiving for Southwestern Community College. 

Mountaineer Little League Baseball has been around since the 1970s, but like everything else, once Hurricane Helene hit, its immediate future was uncertain. 

The Western Carolina University Office of Alumni Engagement is stepping up to the plate and taking a swing at a new summer event designed to bring together members of the Catamount family at baseball stadiums across North and South Carolina. 

When my time comes, if there is some gathering for people to pick over my days and ways, I expect someone will inevitably say, “That old boy loved baseball and would bore you silly talking about the damned Dodgers.

Jackson County Public Schools announced it is officially going out for construction bids to install lighting systems on its baseball and softball fields. This significant project aims to enhance the athletic experience for student-athletes, improve safety, and support the broader community.