MACON, Ga. (April 17, 2025) – The ETSU baseball team dropped its series opener at Mercer on Thursday night by a score of 5-1. Thursday's loss moves ETSU's record to 25-11 and 6-4 in SoCon play.
 
Carter Fink, a Macon, Georgia native, turned in one of his best starts of the season. Fink threw the first seven innings against the Bears and allowed three runs on six hits to go with four strikeouts. Despite the quality start, Fink saw his record dip to 6-2.
 
ETSU was limited to five hits in game one. Two of those five hits came off the bat of Axel Melendez, while ETSU's run was scored on an RBI double from Jamie Palmese. Blake Jacklin and Grant Gallagher accounted for the other two hits for the Bucs on the day.
 
Mercer grabbed the first lead of the contest in the bottom of the first inning with a solo home run from Ty Dalley. Fink appeared to settle in after that homer by Dalley, but the Bears added one more to their lead with a single to make it 2-0 Mercer.
 
The Bucs would get on the board with back-to-back doubles from Melendez and Palmese in the fifth. With it being a one-run game again, the Bears promptly got that run back with their second home run of the night to make it 3-1 after five.
 
After a couple of scoreless innings, the Bears added to their advantage with two runs in the bottom of the eighth. ETSU, which had at least one runner reach base in seven of the nine innings on Thursday, started the ninth with a walk from Tristan Curless. Unfortunately for the Bucs, Curless was left on base (one of seven baserunners left on base for the Bucs Thursday) and the Bears held on for the 5-1 win.
 
The Bucs will aim to even the series tomorrow evening in game two of the series. First pitch tomorrow night is set for 6 p.m.

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