CULLOWHEE, N.C. – Winner of nine straight – and 19 of its past 21 games overall since April 6 – the Western Carolina Catamount baseball team Monday entered the national rankings on the heels of the program’s 12th Southern Conference regular-season championship captured on Sunday. WCU debuted at No. 29 in the Collegiate Baseball newspaper’s NCAA Division I rankings, the nation’s oldest college baseball poll.

Additionally, the Catamounts advanced one spot in the CollegeBaseballDaily.com Mid-Major poll, matching their preseason ranking of 14th according to the publication. WCU was ranked as high as eighth in the mid-major polling released back on Feb. 18, that coming after taking two of three from Pac-12 opponent Washington State on opening weekend.

Western Carolina (36-17, 21-6 SoCon) returns to the national rankings for the first time since 2003, when it made a couple of different appearances. That year, the Catamounts were ranked as high as 26th (April 7, 2003) in the Collegiate Baseball poll and went on to claim both the SoCon regular-season and tournament championships before falling in an epic 14 innings in the Wilson regional championship game.

The Catamounts were also nationally ranked in 1998, when the team jumped out to a 27-7 overall record and a 14-1 score sheet in the SoCon to rank 28th. According to available research, the highest Western Carolina has ever risen in the polls was 17th by Collegiate Baseball to end the 1992 season.

Western Carolina wraps up its regular season this week by visiting archrival Appalachian State (27-19, 12-12 SoCon) for a three-game set in Boone, N.C., beginning Thursday. The Mountaineers, which are in the “Others Receiving Votes” category of the CollegeBaseballDaily.com Mid-Major poll, enter the series after taking two of three on the road at West Coast Conference regular-season champion Gonzaga.