CULLOWHEE, N.C. (March 22, 2024) – Western Carolina homered three times in an 8-4 win over the ETSU baseball team on Friday afternoon in both teams' Southern Conference opener. With Friday's results, the Bucs move to 14-7 overall, while Western Carolina improves to 11-9.
 
Nick Iannantone continued to swing it well out of the leadoff spot for ETSU. Iannantone reached base four times on a 3-for-4 day with a double and a walk. Six other Bucs picked up hits in the contest. Noah Webb and JD Yakubinis both had doubles, while Cody Miller reached base twice with a single and a walk. By reaching base twice and collecting a hit on Friday, Miller extended his reached base streak to 16 games and his hitting streak to 11 games.
 
Freshman Jace Hyde made his fifth start of the season on Friday for ETSU. Hyde tossed the first 4.2 innings and allowed three runs on five hits and struck out three. The trio of Kenny Keller, Andrew Cotten, and Derek McCarley combined to throw 1.1 innings in relief of Hyde. Landon Crumbley finished off the game on the mound for ETSU with two innings pitched, one run allowed and a pair of strikeouts.
 
Western Carolina jumped out to a 3-0 lead on Bucs on Friday. A two-run home run from Nate Stocum in the first spotted WCU the first two runs of the day before they added another on a sacrifice fly in the second. ETSU got on the board in the third as Cameron Sisneros drove in his team-leading 33^rd run of the season to make it 3-1 Western Carolina.
 
Neither team would score again until the sixth. The Bucs made it a one-run game without getting a hit. A pair of walks and a hit batter gave ETSU a bases loaded chance with nobody out. After a strikeout, Webb worked a walk to get the Bucs within a run, 3-2, but a key double play turned by the Catamounts got them out of the jam. It was one of four double plays turned by Western Carolina on the day.
 
WCU would build its lead back quickly in their half of the sixth. After Cotten retired the first two batters on strikeouts, back-to-back hits led into Stocum's second home run of the day to push the Catamount lead back to four, 6-2. Western Carolina launched another long ball a batter later to make it 7-2 Catamounts heading to the seventh.
 
Western Carolina added an insurance run in the seventh before the Bucs tallied a pair of runs in the eighth. Yakubinis, who did not start the game, doubled home Miller before Noah Gent brought Yakubinis in with a single to make the score 8-4. However, another double play and a groundout stopped ETSU's momentum, and the Bucs trailed by four heading to the ninth.
 
The ninth inning saw Iannantone reach for the fourth time on the day. Later in the stanza, it looked like the Bucs would cut the Catamount in half with a two-run home run by Sisneros but WCU outfielder made a leaping catch at the wall to finish off the win for Western Carolina, 8-4.  
 
ETSU and Western Carolina will resume their series on Saturday afternoon. First pitch for game two is set for 2 p.m. on ESPN+.

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