JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (Feb. 23, 2024) – The ETSU baseball team got back into the win column with a 3-1 victory over Rider on Friday afternoon at Thomas Stadium. Friday's win improves ETSU's record to 4-1 overall and 4-0 at home.
After getting the win last Sunday vs. Lafayette,
Carter Fink made his first start in a Buccaneer uniform and picked up another victory to improve to 2-0. Fink tossed five shutout innings against the Broncs to go with four strikeouts while scattering four hits. With his outing on Friday, Fink has started his Buccaneer career with 8.1 scoreless innings.
Owen Kovacs continued his stellar start to the 2024 campaign with 1.2 shutout innings to earn the save (second of his career). Like Fink, Kovacs has not allowed a run this season covering 3.2 innings in three relief outings.
Offensively, the Bucs hit a pair of home runs on Friday.
Cameron Sisneros connected on his second of the season in the first inning.
Noah Webb hit his first long ball of 2024 as well. In addition to the home run, Sisneros also reached three more times on walks.
Jamie Palmese provided ETSU some offense at the bottom of the order going 2-for-2 with a triple and a run scored.
Tommy Barth and
Ashton King also picked up hits for ETSU on Friday.
Like it has in the previous four games this season, ETSU began the day with a scoreless first inning from its starter. Sisneros got the Bucs on the board with a solo home run in the bottom half of the inning. Sisneros has now homered in back-to-back Fridays for ETSU.
The second inning was Rider's best chance to score against Fink. The Broncs started the inning with three straight singles. However, a key double play and another groundout got ETSU out of a bases loaded jam with nobody out still with the lead.
ETSU added to its advantage in the third as
Jamie Palmese got things started with a triple in the right-center field gap. Palmese then scored on a passed ball later in the inning to make the score 2-0 ETSU. Webb's homer to centerfield came in the fourth to put the Bucs up 3-0 heading into the middle innings.
Rider worked across a run in the top of the seventh off the Buccaneer bullpen. However,
Andrew Cotten came in to limit the Rider rally to that one run as he got the Bucs out of a jam with two runners on base with one out.
Cotton worked into the eighth inning and was relieved by
Tyler Fetterman. Fetterman, who made his ETSU debut on Friday, walked the only player he faced before ETSU gave the ball to Kovacs. Kovacs not only got the Bucs out of the eighth but tossed a scoreless top of the ninth to preserve the win. In the top of the ninth, the Bucs flashed some stellar defense with two stellar catches from Barth and Sisneros before Kovacs ended the contest with a strikeout.
The Buccaneers and Broncs will resume their three-game series on Saturday at Thomas Stadium. First pitch is set for 2 p.m.
For more information on Buccaneer baseball, visit ETSUBucs.com and click on the baseball tab.
