JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (March 5, 2024) – The ETSU baseball team won a back-and-forth battle with Binghamton by a score of 7-5 on Tuesday at Thomas Stadium. With Tuesday's victory, the Buccaneers improve to 10-2 overall and 10-1 at home. It is ETSU's best 12-game start to a season since 2020 when it also began that campaign 10-2.
Leading the way for the Buccaneer offense on Tuesday was the tandem of
Cody Miller and
Nick Iannantone. Miller went a perfect 3-for-3 with a pair of doubles, two runs scored, a walk and a stolen base. Iannantone, meanwhile, went 2-for-4 with a home run and drove in three of ETSU's seven runs on Tuesday.
ETSU used five pitchers on Tuesday.
Carter Fink worked the first 3.1 innings and allowed two runs on three hits.
Kenny Keller and
Andrew Cotten did not allow an earned run in their respective relief outings, while
Derek McCarley got the win after tossing four shutout innings to finish off victory. With Tuesday's win, McCarley improves to 2-1 on the 2024 season.
Like it has in all but one game this season, the Bucs scored first on Tuesday. After
Jamie Palmese was hit by a pitch, Iannantone connected on his second home run of the year to make it 2-0 Bucs. Later in the inning,
Ashton King drove in
Tommy Barth with a single to give ETSU a three-run lead after three innings of play.
Binghamton promptly answered ETSU's three-run inning with one of its own in the top the fourth. The tied score did not last long as in the bottom of the fourth the Bucs scored a run on a wild pitch to regain the lead, 4-3.
Neither team scored again until the sixth. The Bearcats were helped by a pair of ETSU errors to bring two runs in and take their first lead of the game, 5-4. Facing its first deficit of the day, the Bucs turned to some fundamental baseball to even the score. Miller worked a walk to start the bottom of the sixth and then quickly swiped second base.
Ryan McCarthy drew another walk before Palmese executed a successful sacrifice bunt to not only give the Bucs a pair of runners in scoring position with one out but also brought the top of the ETSU order up. Iannantone came through with an RBI single to score Miller and Barth followed a batter later with a sacrifice fly to bring McCarthy home to put ETSU back on top, 6-5.
With the Bucs back in front, McCarley was outstanding out of the ETSU bullpen and kept the Bearcat offense in check for the remainder of the game.
Cameron Sisneros gave McCarley and the Bucs a little more breathing room with an RBI single in the eighth to make the score 7-5. McCarley took it the rest of the way tossing a career-high four innings in securing ETSU's fourth straight win.
ETSU will return to action this weekend when it hosts James Madison for a three-game series at Thomas Stadium. The series between the Bucs and Dukes is set to begin at 3 p.m. on Friday afternoon.
For more information on Buccaneer baseball, visit ETSUBucs.com and click on the baseball tab.
