JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (March 14, 2025) – The ETSU baseball team continued its stellar play in front of its home fans on Friday by sweeping a doubleheader against Longwood. The Blue and Gold won game one in seven innings by a score of 12-1 and then followed that by rallying from a 4-0 deficit to down the Lancers 14-4 in eight innings. With the pair of wins on Friday, ETSU improves to 14-4 on the season.
Game One Recap – ETSU struck first in the opening game of the day with an RBI triple from
Cooper Torres in the bottom of the first inning. Longwood tied it up with a sacrifice fly in the third but then ETSU's offense really got going. The Bucs scored six times in the bottom of the third, added four more in fourth and topped it off with another run in the fifth to run away from the Lancers on their way to a 12-1 win.
While the offense continued to score runs in bunches,
Carter Fink turned in one of his best starts of the 2025 campaign on Friday. Fink matched a career-high with seven strikeouts in five innings pitched, while allowing just one run on four hits. Fink, who improved to 3-0 with Friday's performance, was followed by
JR Fordham and
Jack Vest out of the Buccaneer bullpen and both relievers turned in scoreless innings and struck two batters each.
Offensively, Torres continued to swing it well from the cleanup spot for the Bucs totaling a career-high four hits in a 4-for-4 day at the plate with three runs scored and four RBI. Torres finished a double shy of the cycle and slugged his ninth home run of the season in the win.
Grant Gallagher also homered for the Bucs going 2-for-4 with two runs scored and three RBI.
Joey Little went 3-for-4 batting ninth for the Bucs in game one and
JD Yakubinis also had a multi-hit game going 2-for-4 with three RBI.
Game Two Recap – It looked like Longwood would even the series at a game a piece as it led 4-0 going to the bottom of the sixth. ETSU, which had just one hit to that point of the game, got to the Lancer bullpen with five in the sixth, three in the seventh and six in the eighth to walk-off Longwood in eight innings, 14-4.
Cody Miller played a big part in the late offensive surge for the Bucs in game two. The junior shortstop slugged two home runs, including a grand slam in the eighth, and drove in six runs in the victory. The six RBI were not only the most by an ETSU player this season but also the most Miller has had in his collegiate career. Gallagher added another home run to his 2025 ledger as well bringing his season total to 11 in 18 games. Torres notched another multi-hit game going 2-for-5 and
Blake Jacklin worked three walks and scored three times for the Bucs.
Jace Hyde got the start for ETSU on the mound for game two and pitched the first 3.1 innings and allowed four runs on six hits.
Brady Frederick came in to relieve Hyde and threw 3.2 shutout innings with one hit allowed and five strikeouts. Frederick, who was awarded the win, did have some traffic on the basepaths in the top of the eighth as Longwood had the tying run on the on-deck circle with nobody out.
Andrew Ronne, however, came in and shut down the Lancer scoring threat by striking out the side. Ronne earned his second save of the season and Frederick lowered his ERA to 0.46 this season with their outings in game two.
Next Up – ETSU will go for the series sweep of the Lancers on Saturday. First pitch for the series finale is set for 2 p.m. from Thomas Stadium.
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