GREENVILLE, S.C. (May 23, 2024) – The No. 3 seed ETSU baseball team was up 2-0 on No. 7 seed Mercer through five innings in its first game of the SoCon Tournament on Thursday evening in Greenville, S.C. However, the seventh-seeded Bears rallied to upend the Bucs by a score of 7-4. Thursday's loss moves ETSU's record to 34-19 on the 2024 campaign.
 
SoCon Player of the Year Cameron Sisneros led the charge for the Buccaneer offense going 3-for-5 with a double, a home run and two RBI. With the two runs driven in, Sisneros becomes just the second Buc ever to drive in 80 runs in a season joining Paul Hoilman who accomplished the feat in 2010. Nick Iannantone reached base three times thanks to an RBI single, a hit by pitch and a walk. Blake Jacklin and Noah Webb also got on base three times (two walks, one hit by pitch each).
 
Carter Fink turned in a stellar start for ETSU on Thursday. The Macon, Georgia native held the Bear offense, which scored 18 runs yesterday vs. VMI, to three runs on six hits over six innings of work. Despite his efforts, Fink took the loss and moved his record to 6-2 on the season.
 
Thursday's game began as a pitchers' duel as ETSU's Fink and Mercer's Wesley Franklin held the opposing lineups scoreless through the first three innings of play. The Bucs would break through in the fourth. Cody Miller and Noah Gent started the stanza with singles. Jacklin executed a successful sacrifice bunt to give ETSU a pair of runners in scoring position with one out. Webb was hit by a pitch to give the Bucs a bases loaded chance. Ashton King, who was playing in his 205^th game as a Buc, hit a hard groundball to shortstop and narrowly missed beating it out for an infield hit but was called out. However, the game's first run did come in to score on that play.
 
ETSU would tack on another run in the fifth. Iannantone (walk) and Tommy Barth (hit by pitch) got on base in front of Sisneros. Like he has so many times this season, Sisneros came through with an RBI double to make the score 2-0 ETSU.
 
Now protecting a two-run lead, Fink looked like he might get through six innings with no runs allowed. However, Mercer put together a two-out rally to cut the Buccaneer lead in half, 2-1. With a run on the board, Mercer would have its best offensive inning in the seventh. Five hits in the inning with the biggest being a double that drove in three runs gave Mercer its first lead of the night, 5-2.
 
A solo home run by Sisneros in the bottom of the seventh got the Bucs back within two, 5-3. Mercer would answer right back with two runs of their own in the eighth off ETSU reliever Owen Kovacs to go back up 7-3. ETSU mounted another rally in the eighth. Iannantone got the Bucs within three again, 7-4, with a RBI single. In the moment of the game, the Bucs had a bases loaded chance but a key strikeout by the Bears got them out of the jam with their three-run lead intact going to the ninth.
 
In the top of the ninth, Jacklin got on base with a walk, but Mercer reliever Jess Ackerman would tally three strikeouts to finish off the 7-4 win for the Bears. With Jacklin being left on base, ETSU finished the game with 12 runners left on base and went 3-for-19 with runners on base.
 
With tonight's loss, the Bucs will play again at 4 p.m. on Friday in an elimination game. ETSU's opponent will be the team that loses the matchup between No. 1 seed UNC Greensboro and No. 5 seed Wofford tomorrow morning.

For more information on Buccaneer baseball, visit ETSUBucs.com and click on the baseball tab.