University of Tennessee Athletics
Raleigh and Vols hosts Western Carolina Tuesday
April 28, 2008 | Baseball
First-year Tennessee head baseball coach Todd Raleigh leads the Volunteers against his alma mater Tuesday as UT hosts Western Carolina for a 7 p.m. contest at Robert M. Lindsay Field at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
Raleigh lettered as a catcher at WCU???located in Cullowhee, N.C.???from 1988-91, earning first-team All-Southern Conference honors as a senior in 1991. His association with the Catamounts continued from 1993-94, when he served the program as an assistant coach. In 2000, he named Western Carolina???s head coach; and he held that position until his hiring at Tennessee in the summer of 2007.
Raleigh led the Cats to more than 250 wins and a pair of NCAA Regional appearances while twice earning Southern Conference Coach of the Year honors.
The 2008 Catamounts under first-year head coach Bobby Moranda bring a 19-24 (7-11 SoCon) record into Tuesday???s matchup, including a 6-14 mark on the road. WCU is batting .302 as a team and has clubbed 61 home runs in 43 games. The Cats??? pitching staff has fashioned a 6.55 ERA.
The Vols own a 25-19 (11-10 SEC) record and have posted 19 home victories against just five defeats. True freshman outfielder Josh Liles is hitting .357 over UT???s least 10 games with 15 hits, three home runs and a flawless fielding percentage. The Jackson, Tenn., native has five homers on the year, and all have come during the month of April.
Another Vol enjoying success at the plate is sophomore catcher Yan Gomes, who enters Tuesday???s game riding a 16-game hit streak that is the longest by a Vol since Julio Borbon (2005-07) hit safely in 17 straight games in 2006. Gomes is hitting .406 (26-for-64) during his streak.
Tennessee???s starting pitcher Tuesday will be sophomore left-hander Jeff Lockwood (2-1, 6.04 ERA), while Western Carolina sends left-hander Drew Saberhagen (3-6, 7.91 ERA) to the hill. Saberhagen is the son of two-time Cy Young Award winner and three-time MLB All-Star Bret Saberhagen.
The Vols lead the all-time series with WCU 16-5, dating to 1954.
In addition to Raleigh, other members of the Tennessee staff share WCU connections. Assistant coach Bradley LeCroy worked as an assistant under Raleigh at WCU from 2006-07. Tennessee Director of Baseball Operations Alan Beck played for Raleigh at Western from 2000-03 and holds two degrees from his alma mater. And current UT student equipment manager Pat Lynch held the same position with the Catamounts before following Raleigh to Rocky Top.
