JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (March 19, 2024) – The ETSU baseball team started well on Tuesday on the road at No. 19 Virginia Tech, but the nationally-ranked Hokies rallied to upend the Bucs by a score of 14-4. With Tuesday's loss, the Bucs move to 14-6 on the 2024 campaign.
Tommy Barth notched two of ETSU's six hits in the game going 2-for-3 with a run scored and an RBI.
Nick Iannantone drove in two runs in a 1-for-2 effort at the plate.
Cody Miller,
Noah Gent and
Ryan McCarthy also tallied hits for the Bucs on the day.
ETSU scored the first four runs of the game on Tuesday. An RBI double by Miller scored Barth to give the Bucs a 1-0 lead after one inning. ETSU followed that by scoring three in the second. Iannantone drove in two with a double and Barth followed to drive him in a batter later with a single to make the score 4-0 ETSU.
VT, which came into Tuesday's action batting .348 as a team, got things rolling offensively in the second. An ETSU error chased home the first two runs for the Hokies on Tuesday. With a runner on second base and nobody out,
JD Yakubinis looked like he might get ETSU out of the inning as he caught the first out on a fly ball and threw out the previously mentioned runner out at third base. However, a walk and single prolonged the frame for VT and it took advantage of it. With runners at first and second, Virginia Tech's Christian Martin launched a three-run home run to put the Hokies on top, 5-4.
The Hokie offense continued to roll after the five-run second inning. Virginia Tech scored two in the third, two in the fourth, three in the fifth and two more in the sixth to total 14 runs on the Bucs. Overall, the Hokies totaled seven extra base hits and hit .474 with runners on base in the contest.
ETSU will be back in action this weekend as it opens its SoCon schedule with a three-game series at Western Carolina. The weekend set with the Catamounts is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. on Friday from Cullowhee.
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