JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (May 3, 2024) – The ETSU baseball team got back into the win column on Friday with an 8-3 victory against VMI at Thomas Stadium. With Friday's victory, the Bucs improve to 28-15 overall and 10-6 in SoCon play.
Offensively,
Nick Iannantone reached base four times for the Bucs with two hits and two walks.
Tommy Barth also recorded a two-hit day for the Bucs (2-for-5).
Noah Webb reached on three walks and scored a pair of runs, while
Jamie Palmese stole a season-high three bases, drove in a run, and scored two more for ETSU.
Carter Fink pitched well for ETSU on Friday. Fink tossed a season-high seven innings for the Bucs on the day. He allowed just one run (not earned) on five hits to go with five strikeouts. Fink, who improved to 5-0 on the season with the win, was followed by
Andrew Ronne out of the Buccaneer bullpen. Ronne pitched the final two innings and struck out three to finish off the victory for the Bucs.
After blanking the Keydets in the top of the first, the Bucs scored the first run of the day in the bottom half of the inning. Iannantone led things off with a double and he came around to score on a single from
Cody Miller.
VMI evened the score at one in the fifth. A Keydet single, an ETSU error and a groundout tied the score at 1-1. The Bucs were quick to answer in the bottom of the fifth. The first three batters reached base in the stanza. With the bases loaded, Palmese put the Bucs back on top with an RBI ground out. With his speed, Palmese forced a wild throw by the VMI pitcher on a pickoff throw to chase home the second run of the inning.
The Bucs added three more runs in the sixth. Iannantone had the big hit in the three-run rally with a two-run single. ETSU would add yet another run in the seventh when
JD Yakubinis brought in Miller on a sacrifice fly to make the score 7-1 ETSU. Furthermore, the sacrifice fly by Yakubinis is his team-leading seventh of the season. That ties the most for a Buccaneer in a season in program history matching the seven by Brandon Cross in 2001 and Paul Hoilman in 2009.
VMI would get two runs back in the eighth to make the score 7-3. However, the Bucs got that run back on
Cameron Sisneros' 60
th RBI of the season to push their lead back to 8-3. Sisneros is the first Buccaneer hitter to drive in 60 runs in a season since 2016 when Trey York knocked in 62 runs. Ronne then retired the Keydets in order in the ninth to finish off 8-3 victory.
ETSU and VMI will resume the series tomorrow. With rain forecasted later in the day in the Tri-Cities, the Bucs and Keydets have moved up the game time to 9 a.m. from Thomas Stadium.
For more information on Buccaneer baseball, visit ETSUBucs.com and click on the baseball tab.
