SPARTANBURG, S.C. (March 27, 2025) – After playing 21 of its first 24 games of the season at home, the ETSU baseball team will travel to USC Upstate for their first road series of the 2025 campaign this weekend. All three games of the weekend set can be watched on ESPN+. The series is set to get underway on Friday with first pitch slated for 5 p.m.
Last Time Out – ETSU collected a
12-7 midweek win over Old Dominion yesterday. Wednesday's win boosts ETSU's record to 19-5 this season. This start by the Bucs is their best since the 2019 campaign when they also started 19-5.
Highlighting the Home Runs – In Wednesday's win over Old Dominion, the Buccaneers hit three more home runs to bring their season total to 57. The 57 home runs by ETSU ranks only behind Georgia (74) and Tennessee (61) nationally in home runs. Furthermore, one of those home runs on Wednesday came off the bat of
Cooper Torres boosting his season total to 11. Pairing with
Grant Gallagher and his team-leading 12 homers, Torres and Gallagher trail only Georgia's duo of Ryland Zaborowski (14) and Robbie Burnett (13) for the most home runs by two teammates in Division I baseball this season.
Rare Road Trip for the Bucs – As mentioned earlier, this series against Upstate will be ETSU's first road series of the 2025 season. All three of ETSU's road games have been against power conference opponents Virginia Tech, Georgia and Tennessee with the Bucs handing the top-ranked Volunteers their first loss of the season nine days ago.
Tristan Curless has been ETSU's top hitter in those three road games with a .455 average with three home runs. On the pitching side, the Buccaneer pitchers have held the lineups of those three teams to a .204 batting average.
Fast Starts for ETSU – ETSU's 19-5 start can partly be credited to its ability to get off to a good start. In the first two innings of games this season, the Bucs are outscoring their opponents 44-16. ETSU is 13-2 when scoring first and have scored at least one run in the first inning nine times in 2025. Even when their opponents score first, which has happened nine times this season, the Bucs have battled back to win six of those contests.
Consistency from the Mound – On the mound, the Bucs rank among the top 25 nationally in team ERA (16
th – 3.72), WHIP (18
th – 1.25) and hits allowed per nine innings (24
th – 7.53). The Bucs join Tennessee, Western Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Oregon State, Florida State, Mississippi State, Hawaii, Northeastern, UCF, West Virginia, Southeastern Louisiana State, Texas, North Carolina, Oregon, Alabama, LSU, Kentucky, UC Santa Barbara as the only teams in the country to rank among the top 25 in all three categories.
About USC Upstate – The Spartans are led by first-year Head Coach Kane Sweeney. Sweeney has guided the Spartans to a 13-11 record during his first season at the helm. USC Upstate has a pair of wins over teams from the ACC in Boston College and NC State to go with a victory over nationally-ranked Troy. The Spartans are hitting .322 as a team this spring, which is just .001 behind ETSU's team batting average of .323.
Series Rewind vs. USC Upstate – Historically, the Bucs have held the edge against the Spartans. ETSU is 15-4 all-time against Upstate. While the Bucs have won the last six matchups between these two programs, Friday will mark the first meeting between these two teams since 2015.
For more information on Buccaneer baseball, visit ETSUBucs.com and click on the baseball tab.
