Thursday, February 02, 2006

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (Feb. 2, 2006) - The East Tennessee State baseball team will open their 2006 campaign Friday afternoon at 1 p.m. in the first of a three-game weekend series against the Eastern Michigan Eagles from Cardinal Park in Johnson City, Tenn.

            The Bucs finished seventh in the Southern Conference last season, and posted the first winning season at ETSU since 1996, finishing at 31-22. ETSU hopes to carry the momentum of its first winning season in nearly a decade into its new home in the Atlantic Sun Conference.  The Bucs were menacing from the plate a year ago, and promise more of the same in '06, as they return five of the top seven hitters out of a line-up that hit .320 as a team last season.  Anchoring the rotation this season will be senior Jeremy Hall (Gray, Tenn.), who led the SoCon in wins a year ago with 10.

            Eastern Michigan is coming off a 22-34 season last season, and has been picked for a fifth place finish in the Mid-American Conference's West Division.

            The second game of the series between ETSU and EMU was scheduled for Saturday at 1 p.m., but the weather forecast has forced a change in the weekend schedule.  The series' second game will begin thirty minutes following the conclusion of game one Friday afternoon, and the series finale will be played Saturday at 1 p.m.