JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (Feb. 22, 2024) – The ETSU baseball team will return home to Thomas Stadium this weekend when it hosts Rider for a three-game series. Game times for this weekend are set for 3 p.m. on Friday, 2 p.m. on Saturday and 1 p.m. on Sunday. This weekend's series is sponsored by Aubrey's. 
 
Probable Pitching Matchups
Game 1 - RHP PJ Craig (Rider) vs. RHP Carter Fink (ETSU) – Friday @ 3 p.m. | Live Stats
Game 2 – RHP Jake Dorety (Rider) vs. RHP Andrew Ronne (ETSU) – Saturday @ 2 p.m. | Live Stats
Game 3 – LHP Brian Young (Rider) vs. RHP Jace Hyde (ETSU) – Sunday @ 1 p.m.| Live Stats
 
Last Time Out – The Buccaneers suffered their first loss of the 2024 season on Wednesday when they fell to No. 9 Tennessee by a score of 16-0. The loss moves ETSU's record to 3-1 on the season.  
 
Winning at Home – ETSU started off its home schedule with a three-game sweep of Lafayette last week (27-7, 15-5, 13-1). Dating back to last season, the Bucs are 8-2 in their last 10 games at Thomas Stadium (.800 winning percentage). The 8-2 home record for ETSU is tied with Samford and UNC Greensboro for the best home record among SoCon teams in their last 10 games. 
 
Nick Adds to the Streak – Nick Iannantone added to his hitting streak in Wednesday's game against Tennessee. Dating back to last season, Iannantone is riding a 16-game hitting streak. This matches teammate Cody Miller's 16-game streak last season as the longest hitting streak for a Buc over the last two seasons. 
 
ETSU piling up the K's – Through four games of the season, the Buccaneer pitching staff has racked up 52 strikeouts. This averages to 14.2 strikeouts per nine innings. That strikeout per nine inning mark ranks third in the country behind only Florida State (17.3) and Creighton (14.3). Sunday's scheduled starter Jace Hyde leads the staff in strikeouts so far this season with 10. 
 
About Rider – The Broncs were swept by No. 11 ECU over the weekend. The scores of the three games were 16-2, 7-0 and 7-0. Rider is coming off a season where it went 36-21 and appeared in the NCAA Tournament. The Broncs not only earned a bid to the NCAA Tournament, but they also won a game (11-10 vs. Coastal Carolina). 

Series History vs. Rider– ETSU and Rider have matched up a total of 13 times over the years with the first coming in 1994. The Bucs have won 10 of the 13 all-time games between these two programs. The Broncs will be looking to snap a three-game losing skid to the Bucs this weekend. 

For more information on Buccaneer baseball, visit ETSUBucs.com and click on the baseball tab.