JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (March 21, 2025) – The ETSU baseball team continued its winning ways in its first game of SoCon play on Friday as it defeated Samford by a score of 6-1. Friday's victory improves ETSU's record to 17-4 in 2025, including a 16-2 mark in games played at Thomas Stadium.
The win, which was ETSU's fifth in a row, was fueled in large part to the work done on the mound. The Blue and Gold used just two pitchers on Friday.
Carter Fink started the contest and pitched a season-high 6.1 innings and allowed one run on three hits to go with five strikeouts.
Brady Frederick followed Fink and continued his stellar season tossing 2.2 shutout innings allowing one hit and striking out three. Fink improved to 4-0 on the season with his start on Friday, while Frederick lowered his season ERA to 1.21.
Offensively, the Bucs were limited to a season-low five hits against the Bulldogs.
Cooper Torres led the charge offensively going 2-for-3 with two runs scored and three RBI.
Joey Little drove in two runs for ETSU with a single, while
Jamie Palmese and
Grant Gallagher accounted for the other hits for the Bucs. Additionally, the Bucs matched a season-high with four stolen bases in the victory coming from
Cody Miller, Palmese, Torres and Gallagher.
The Bulldogs pushed across the first run on Friday. With a pair of runners in scoring position, the Bulldogs hit a ball into the gap that looked like it might score two but a perfect relay from Palmese to Torres to
Will Smoot was in time to stop the second run from scoring.
ETSU would knot the score at one in the bottom of the fourth. Torres and Gallagher got the rally started with back-to-back singles. Little then executed a successful sacrifice bunt to move both runners up a base. A groundout by
Tristan Curless brought home Torres to pull the Bucs even, 1-1.
The big inning for the Bucs came in the fifth. Torres stayed hot with a two-run double down the left field line to score Palmese and Miller. After Gallagher was intentionally walked, Little singled to right and smartly got in a rundown between first and second to allow Gallagher to score all the way from first extending ETSU's lead to four, 5-1.
The Bucs added an insurance run in the seventh with a RBI groundout by Torres. With the three runs driven in on Friday, Torres has taken over the team lead in RBI with 25. That run support was more than enough for the tandem of Fink and Frederick. Samford was limited to just four hits on Friday, which was tied for its second-lowest hit total in a game this season (2 at Tennessee on Feb. 22 being the only one fewer). With the win, the Bucs improve to 5-1 this season in games started by Fink.
ETSU will look to clinch the series victory in game two against the Bulldogs tomorrow afternoon. First pitch between the Bucs and Bulldogs is set for 2 p.m. from Thomas Stadium.
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