SPARTANBURG, S.C. (March 28, 2025) – The ETSU baseball team matched a single-game program record on Friday by hitting seven home runs on the road at USC Upstate. Despite the impressive power shown by the Bucs, the Spartans came away with the 19-14 win. Friday's loss moves ETSU's record to 19-6 on the 2025 season.
The seven home runs hit on Friday by the Bucs were matched only by the team's performance on March 1, 2020, against Georgia State. Perhaps just as impressive, ETSU's seven long balls came from six different players.
Grant Gallagher crushed a pair of home runs to bring his team-leading total to 14.
Cooper Torres,
Jamie Palmese,
Gabe Juarez,
Blake Jacklin, and
Joey Little all homered as well. Torres has now homered in three straight games, while for Juarez and Little, it was the first home runs of their ETSU careers. Jacklin finished the night with three hits and
Tristan Curless had a three-hit night as well for the Bucs.
On the mound, ETSU used seven pitchers.
Andrew Cotten (3.1 innings) and
Logan Grass (two innings) gave the Bucs some much needed length out of the bullpen. Cotten turned in the most impressive outing by a Buc on Friday as he held the hot-hitting Spartans to one run on two hits to go with four strikeouts. Furthermore, Cotton closed his outing by retiring 10 batters in a row.
The two offenses wasted little time in getting things rolling on Friday. After ETSU pushed across three runs in the top of the first, Upstate's offense came back with 10 runs of their own in the bottom half of the frame. The Spartans scored one more in the second to make it 11-3 heading to the fourth.
Jacklin moved the Bucs within seven with a solo home run in the fourth. It was Jacklin's second home run in as many games. Like in the first inning, Upstate's lineup put together another multi-run performance in the bottom of the fourth with a five-run effort to build its lead back up.
Trailing by a season-high 12 runs, the Bucs started turning to their bench in the fifth for a spark. Those moves worked as both Juarez and Little, who entered the game as pinch hitters, homered in their first at-bats of the night. If that wasn't enough, Torres hit a three-run home run and Gallagher hit a pair of homers in the fifth to fuel a nine-run inning. This sudden offensive explosion from the Bucs made it a three-run game, 16-13.
Upstate got three of runs back in their half of the fifth to make it 19-13. Cotten entered the game and put up some much-needed zeros for ETSU as it continued to try and make a comeback.
Palmese homered to center in the top of the eighth to make it a five-run game, 19-14. It was Palmese's tenth home run this spring. With Gallagher (14 home runs), Torres (12 home runs) and Palmese (10 home runs), ETSU is the only team in the country to have three players with 10 or more home runs this spring.
That run scored on Palmese's home run proved to be the last run scored on Friday as the Spartans held on for the 19-14 win. The 33 runs scored by the two teams are the most in a game involving the Bucs since opening day in 2024 when 34 runs were scored in a 27-7 win for Bucs over Lafayette.
The Bucs and Spartans will resume their series tomorrow afternoon. First pitch for game two is set for 2 p.m. from Harley Park.
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