Wednesday, April 15, 2009

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (April 15, 2009) - An eight run seventh lifted the ETSU baseball team to a 11-8 win over Tennessee Tech Wednesday night at Cardinal Park snapping a five game losing streak.

ETSU improved to 15-19 on the season and 6-12 in conference with the victory. Tennessee Tech dropped to 17-14 overall and 4-7 in league play.

The Bucs out hit the Golden Eagles 14-11 led by senior Ben Allen (Kingsport, Tenn.) and right fielder Cory Betterson (Atlanta, Ga.) as Allen was 3-for-4 and scored two runs, while Betterson was 2-for-4 scored a run and had three RBI.

Freshman Bo Reeder (Cookeville, Tenn.) picked up his third win of the year after going 1.0 inning allowing one unearned run on two hits to improve to 3-3. Ryan Dennick was tabbed with the loss after giving up six runs (five earned) on six hits and struck out one.

The Bucs took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the fourth as Betterson singled to right center driving in Derek Trent (Kingsport, Tenn.) and Allen.

Cory Wright tied the game at 2-all in the top of the sixth as he hit a two-run home run down the left field line.

Cather Danny Petro (Atlanta, Ga.) came in to score in the bottom of the sixth on a couple Tennessee Tech errors to give ETSU a 3-2 lead.

TTU tied the game again in the top of the seventh as Alex Henry singled in a run to make the score 3-3.

ETSU regained the lead in the bottom of the seventh as Chris Rankhorn (Gallatin, Tenn.) singled through the left side of the infield to score left fielder Troy Mendez (Roswell, Ga.) to put the Bucs up 4-3. The Bucs added seven more runs in the inning highlighted by an RBI single to left center by Betterson and a three-run home run that was absolutely crushed over the fence in left by shortstop Garrett May (Roswell, Ga.) to put ETSU up 11-3. The home run was May's fourth of the season.

The Golden Eagles got a run in the top of the eighth on a Heath Cheverton RBI single to cut the Buccaneer lead to 11-4.

Tennessee Tech added four more runs on two hits and two ETSU errors in the top of the ninth to make the final 11-8.

The Bucs are back in action Friday at 7 p.m. as they head to Spartanburg, S.C. to take on conference opponent USC Upstate in a three-game series. Please visit www.ETSUBucs.com for more information on ETSU baseball and all other Buccaneer athletic news.

ETSU 11, Tennessee Tech 8 (April 15, 2009 at Johnson City, Tenn.)
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TTU............... 000  002  114   -  8    11     3   (17-14, 4-7 OVC)

ETSU............ 000  201  80x    - 11   14     3   (15-19, 6-12 A-Sun)

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Pitchers: ETSU - Josh Gonzaga; Drew Story (2); Dustin Plumlee (3); Bo Burton (4); Ben Andrews (5); Ben Allen (6); Bo Reeder (7); Chas Byrne (8); Darren Caldwell (9)

TTU - Matthew Shepherd; Ryan Dennick (5); Jerred Griggs (7); A.J. Kirby-Jones (7)

Win -  Bo Reeder (3-3) Loss -  Ryan Dennick (1-2)

Home Runs - ETSU - Garrett May (4)

TTU - Cory Wright (4)