JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (April 28, 2024) – The ETSU baseball team completed its first sweep of a SoCon opponent on Sunday as it rolled past The Citadel by a score of 13-3 in seven innings. The win, which finished off ETSU's first sweep of the Bulldogs since 2019, boosts ETSU's overall record to 27-14 and 9-6 in SoCon play.
The Buccaneer offense continued hit well off the Bulldogs' pitching on Sunday. Eight of the 13 RBI for the Bucs came from their top three hitters in their order in
Nick Iannantone (three RBI),
Tommy Barth (three RBI), and
Cameron Sisneros (two RBI).
Noah Webb,
Cooper Torres, and
Ashton King also drove in runs in the win. Furthermore, Iannantone, Sisneros and Webb all homered to help lead the Bucs to their sixth straight win over The Citadel.
ETSU used just two pitchers on the day.
Michael Harpster started the contest and pitched the first five innings. Harpster allowed three runs on seven hits and worked around four walks as well to go with four strikeouts.
Andrew Ronne tossed the final two frames for the Bucs and struck out four in just his second relief outing of the season. Harpster was credited with his seventh win of the season to improve his record to 7-1 on the season.
Sunday's game began with back-to-back scoreless innings for both starting pitchers. The Bulldogs used a pair of singles and three walks by Harpster to score the first runs of the game in the top of the third. A key double play turned by ETSU got the Bucs out of a bases loaded jam and kept the deficit at two.
The Bulldog lead was short-lived as Torres came around to score on an RBI single by Barth to cut The Citadel's lead in half. Sisneros then hammered a no-doubt two-run home run to right to put the Bucs out in front for the first time on the day.
The Bucs showed off some more power in a four-run fourth inning. Webb got things going with a solo home run, which was his eighth of the season, to make it 4-2 Bucs. A single and walk then led into a three-run home blast by Iannantone to grow ETSU's to five, 7-2.
It looked like the Bulldogs could make a dent into ETSU's lead in the fifth. A solo home run made the score 7-3. A single and double followed to give the Bulldogs two runners in scoring position with one out. However, back-to-back strikeouts by Harpster stifled the scoring chance.
After Ronne threw two shutout innings in relief of Harpster, a six-run seventh inning by the Bucs led into a run-rule victory. 10 Bucs hit in the six-run frame. The Citadel struggled throwing strikes in the frame as two of the runs were scored on bases loaded walks by Webb and King. The two hits in the inning both produced a pair of runs. Torres hit a ground-rule double over the wall in center before Barth split the gap with a double of his own to clinch the win for the Bucs, 13-3. The Bucs are now 10-1 in series finales this season and improve to 20-5 at Thomas Stadium.
ETSU will return to the field on Wednesday when it visits nationally-ranked South Carolina. First pitch between the Bucs and Gamecocks is set for 6:30 p.m. on SEC Network Plus.
For more information on Buccaneer baseball, visit ETSUBucs.com and click on the baseball tab.
