JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (April 5, 2024) – The ETSU baseball team trailed by four runs in the middle of the sixth inning to Mercer, but it rallied to knock off the Bears by a score of 6-5 at Thomas Stadium on Friday. With Friday's win, the Bucs improve to 19-9 overall and 4-3 in SoCon play. Furthermore, the Bucs are now 15-4 this season at home.
ETSU totaled 14 hits on the day with six going for extra bases. Nick Iannnantone and
Ashton King collected three hits a piece, while
Tommy Barth,
Cameron Sisneros and
Jamie Palmese all contributed two-hit days to help fuel the Buccaneer offense.
The Buccaneers used just three pitchers to get through Friday's series opener.
Carter Fink made his first start since March 13 vs. Harvard and worked the first 3.2 innings. Fink, who is a Macon native, allowed four runs on six hits and struck out two in his outing.
Tyler Fetterman logged his fourth straight scoreless outing out of the Buccaneer bullpen as well. The best outing by a Buccaneer pitcher, however, came from
Jace Hyde. Hyde, who entered the game at the start of the fifth, matched a season-high with five innings pitched and allowed just one run on four hits to go with five strikeouts. For his efforts, Hyde was credited with the win and improved to 3-2 on the season.
Friday's game was controlled early by Mercer. The Bears hit a solo home run in the top of the first to jump out to a 1-0 lead. Mercer then boosted its lead to four runs thanks to three runs on four hits in the third. The Bucs did bring a run across in the bottom of the third on a RBI double by Sisneros to trim the deficit to three, 4-1.
Neither team scored again until the sixth inning. The Bears chased a run home with back-to-back hits to start the frame. However, a sacrifice bunt and a unique 3-5-3 double play kept Mercer's lead at four. Sisneros led ETSU's half of the sixth off with a home run, which was his second in as many games and his eighth on the season.
JD Yakubinis doubled to give the Bucs a runner in scoring position with one out. ETSU's middle infield tandem of
Noah Gent and King both had run-producing hits to bring the Bucs back within a run, 5-4 after six innings of play.
Following a scoreless seventh, the Bucs put together a two-out rally in the eighth. King picked up his third hit of the night with a single to get things started. Palmese then drove him in with a triple that was just out of the reach of the right fielder. With the game now tied, Iannantone came through with a clutch RBI double down the left field line to give ETSU its first lead of the day, 6-5.
Now playing with a lead, ETSU stuck with Hyde for the ninth inning. Hyde finished the night off strong retiring the Bears in order to give ETSU the 6-5 comeback win.
The Bucs and Bears will resume their series on Saturday. First pitch for game two is set for 2 p.m. from Thomas Stadium.
For more information on Buccaneer baseball, visit ETSUBucs.com and click on the baseball tab.
