JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (April 27, 2024) – The ETSU baseball team swept a doubleheader against The Citadel on Saturday afternoon at Thomas Stadium. The Buccaneers won game one by a score of 10-6 before clinching the series victory with a 9-2 win in the second game. With the pair of wins, the Bucs improve to 26-14 overall and 8-6 in SoCon play.
Game One Recap – The Bucs hammered three home runs and scored in all but two innings on their way to winning the first game of the day, 10-6.
Tommy Barth slugged one of those ETSU home runs in a 4-for-5 effort at the plate with four RBI and a pair of runs scored.
Nick Iannantone and
Ashton King also homered in the win for ETSU.
On the mound,
Carter Fink made the start for ETSU. Fink worked a season-high six innings against the Bulldogs. He allowed four runs on six hits to go with five strikeouts on his way to picking up his fourth win of the season.
Owen Kovacs then threw a scoreless ninth inning to seal the win for the Bucs.
ETSU jumped out to a 3-0 lead on the Bulldogs after two innings of play.
Cody Miller got the Bucs on the board with a sacrifice fly in the first. Barth then drove in two with a single in the second. The Citadel would quickly answer with a three-run inning in the third to knot the score at three. However, the Bucs scored four times in the bottom of the third thanks to a sacrifice fly from
Jackson Green and a three-run home run by King.
The two teams would trade solo home runs in the sixth with ETSU's coming from Iannantone. The Citadel would close the gap to two runs with their fourth home run of the contest in the eighth to make it 8-6 ETSU. However, a two-run home run by Barth pushed the Buccaneer advantage back to four, 10-6, and Kovacs tossed a scoreless ninth to finish off the win for the Bucs.
Game Two Recap – In the second game of the day, the Bucs arguably put together one of their most complete games of the season. ETSU scored nine runs and totaled 13 hits, while holding The Citadel to a season-low two hits and did not make an error on their way to a 9-2 win.
Noah Gent (four RBI) and Green (three RBI) drove in seven of ETSU's nine runs in game two and collected two hits each as well.
Cameron Sisneros and Barth also had two-hit outings, while
Jamie Palmese and
Ryan McCarthy both knocked in runs in the seven-run win for ETSU.
As mentioned earlier, the Bucs held the Bulldogs to just two hits. The two hits allowed is the lowest by the ETSU pitching staff in a game this season.
Jace Hyde was stellar again for the Bucs tossing six innings and allowed two runs on one hit to go with nine strikeouts.
Landon Crumbley and
Cason Engert also had scoreless innings out of the Buccaneer bullpen. Hyde picked up his fifth win of the season with his outing on Saturday.
The Bulldogs answered a first-inning sacrifice fly by Gent to tie game two's score at 1-1 with an RBI groundout in the third. However, the Buccaneers were stellar the rest of the way outscoring the Bulldogs 8-1 from the bottom of the third onward to finish off the 9-2 victory.
Next Up - ETSU will look to sweep the Bulldogs on Sunday afternoon. It'd mark the first sweep for ETSU against The Citadel since 2019. First pitch for the series finale between the Bucs and Bulldogs is set for 1 p.m. from Thomas Stadium.
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