GREENVILLE, S.C. (May 24, 2024) – As Baseball Hall of Famer Yogi Berra once said, "It's not over until it's over." With its season on the line and trailing by a score of 6-0 entering the eighth inning, the third-seeded ETSU baseball team scored 10 runs over the final two innings to knock off top-seeded UNC Greensboro, 10-7, in an elimination game at the SoCon Tournament. The victory is not only ETSU's 35
th of the season, which is its most in a season since the 2013 when it won 36, but it is also the Bucs' first ever victory over the No. 1 seed in the SoCon Tournament.
Much like in ETSU's first game of this tournament on Thursday, Friday's game began as a pitchers' duel. Freshman
Jace Hyde continued to throw the ball well for ETSU as he pitched into the sixth without allowing a run. UNCG starter Julian Peissel matched Hyde zero for zero and limited the Buccaneer offense to just two hits through the first seven innings on Saturday.
The Spartans pushed across the game's first run in the bottom of the sixth. A single, a hit batter and another single brought across the first run of the day. Protecting a 1-0 lead, the Spartans would add on in the seventh. Hyde retired the first two hitters in the seventh but two singles and an ETSU error chased home UNCG's second run of the day. Following an intentional walk that loaded the bases, UNCG's Luke Holland came through with the biggest swing in the game to that point hammering a pitch over the left field fence to put the Spartans up 6-0. The grand slam was the final batter of the day for Hyde. The freshman righthander finished with 6.2 innings pitched, one earned run allowed (six runs overall) on eight hits to go with eight strikeouts.
As the game moved to the eighth, the Bucs' memorable comeback started.
Ryan McCarthy got things started with an one-out double.
Nick Iannantone singled to give the Bucs a pair of runners on base. A passed ball by the Spartan catcher brought home McCarthy to make it 6-1 UNCG.
Tommy Barth worked a walk and
Cameron Sisneros singled to load the bases. After a flyout,
Noah Gent came up with hopes of extending ETSU's rally. Gent showed great patience and worked a bases loaded walk to score Iannantone.
Blake Jacklin, who entered Friday hitting .419 over his last 10 games, came through again with a two-run single to trim the deficit to two, 6-4.
The biggest at-bat of the game came from a Buc that was playing in his 206
th career game,
Ashton King. With a 2-1 count, King launched a three-run home run to give ETSU its first lead of the day, 7-6.
ETSU's offense was not done though as McCarthy hit a solo home run in the ninth to push the Buc lead to two, 8-6. Following McCarthy's long ball,
Cody Miller and Gent both drove in runs with sacrifice flies to grow ETSU's advantage to four, 10-6, going to the bottom of the ninth.
Playing from in front for the first time,
Andrew Ronne gave the Bucs stellar relief work out of the bullpen. Ronne, who entered the game with two outs in the seventh, pitched the final 2.1 innings, allowed one run on two hits to go with three strikeouts to finish off the 10-7 victory.
ETSU will return to action on Saturday for another elimination game at Fluor Field with its opponent yet to be determined. The Bucs will face winner of tonight's game between No. 4 seed Western Carolina and No. 7 seed Mercer. Should ETSU come away with the victory in that matchup, it will play again in the nightcap against the losing team from tomorrow afternoon's game between No. 2 seed Samford and No. 5 Wofford. ETSU's first game tomorrow will begin at 3:30 p.m. on ESPN+.
For more information on Buccaneer baseball, visit ETSUBucs.com and click on the baseball tab.
