Sunday, May 04, 2008

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (May 4, 2008) - The ETSU baseball team swept Maryland Eastern Shore on a sunny afternoon at Cardinal Park in Johnson City, Tenn., 16-2.

ETSU (18-31, 9-18) was out hit by the Hawks but drew an amazing 16 walks in the game. The Bucs pitching combined to limit UMES to two runs on eight hits while striking out nine and walking none.

The Hawks got on the board first in the top of the first as Josh Dunham singled up the middle scoring a run to make the score 1-0.

The Bucs answered in the bottom of the first as Chris Rankhorn (Gallatin, Tenn.) came in to score on a Paul Hoilman (Johnson City, Tenn.) sacrifice fly to right center to tie the game at 1-1. Later in the inning, Ben Allen (Kingsport, Tenn.) gave ETSU the lead as he singled through the left side driving in Anthony Russell (Waldorf, Md.) to make the score 2-1. The Bucs scored seven more runs in the inning on a John Edmonds (Johnson City, Tenn.) RBI single, a Hawks error and walks to Chas Byrne (Johnson City, Tenn.), Jacob Fabry (Chattanooga, Tenn.) and Rankhorn to give the Bucs a 9-1 lead.

In the bottom of the second, the Bucs scored another run as Bubba Herbold (Knoxville, Tenn.) came in to score on a wild pitch to give the Bucs a 10-1 lead.

Hoilman added to the Buc lead in the bottom of the fourth as he singled up the middle to drive in Fabry and Rankhorn to give ETSU a 12-1 lead. The Bucs scored two more runs on another Hawks error to make the score 14-1.

Edmonds would score in the bottom of the fifth on wild pitch to increase the ETSU lead to 15-1. In the bottom of the sixth, Derek Trent (Kingsport, Tenn.) hit his 14^th home run of the season as he sent a solo shot over the right field fence to give the Bucs a 16-1 lead.

The Hawks scored again in the top of the seventh as Pat Hercinger single to left driving in a run to make the score 16-2.

Trent was 1-for-1 with four walks and a hit by pitch for the Bucs, while Hoilman drove in three runs for the Bucs. Byrne led the team with two hits in the game and Edmonds also drew four walks.

The Bucs broke a couple school records as they broke both the single season home run record with 70 on the season, and they also broke the runs in a series record with 69 runs on the weekend.

The Bucs are back in action Tuesday as they will host James Madison in a 7:30 p.m. game at Cardinal Park.

ETSU 16, Maryland-Eastern Shore 2 (May 4, 2008 at Johnson City, Tenn.)
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UMES.........100  000  100   -  2   8  5   (5-42, 4-12 MEAC)

ETSU..........910  411  00x  -  16  7  2   (18-31, 9-18 A-Sun)

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Pitchers: ETSU - Ben Andrews; Josh Means (5); Darren Caldwell (6); Robbie Campbell (7); Ben Allen (8); Chas Byrne (9)
UMES - Carl Huber; Dan Sterling (4); Matt Witte (6)

Win - Ben Andrews (4-3) Loss - Carl Huber (1-8)

HR - ETSU - Derek Trent (14)