CHARLESTON, S.C. (May 16, 2025) – The Citadel scored six runs in the sixth inning on its way to a 7-3 victory over the ETSU baseball team on Friday afternoon. The loss drops ETSU's record to 37-15 overall and 13-7 in SoCon play.
Four of ETSU's eight hits in the contest came from
Cody Miller and
Cooper Torres. Miller went 2-for-5, while Torres went 2-for-4 with a two-run home run. The home run from Torres was his 22
nd of the 2025 campaign. Torres is just the third Buccaneer hitter to ever hit 22 or more home runs in a single season joining Paul Hoilman (twice) and
Cameron Sisneros.
Axel Melendez knocked in ETSU's third run of the game with a single to round out the offensive leaders for the Bucs.
For the second consecutive game, the Bucs loaded the bases in the top of the first inning. The Citadel, like it did on Thursday, escaped the potential multi-run inning by ETSU to keep the game scoreless. In the bottom half of the first, Buccaneer starting pitcher
Jace Hyde left the game with an injury after one out recorded. Facing a difficult situation, the Bucs turned the ball over to
Derek McCarley. McCarley did an excellent job in relief of Hyde tossing a career-high 4.2 innings with two runs and three hits allowed to go with a pair of strikeouts.
McCarley held the Bulldog offense down until the fourth when Anthony Hausner launched an opposite-field home run to stake The Citadel to a 1-0 lead. Neither team scored again until the sixth. A leadoff walk spelled the end of the day for McCarley. The next five Citadel hitters either reached base or executed a successful sacrifice to push their lead to four, 4-0. With a strikeout by
Andrew Ronne, it looked like the Bucs may get out of the jam. However, a hit batter and a two-run single tacked on three more runs to the Bulldog lead and the home team led by seven after six innings of action.
ETSU got on the board in the seventh as Torres connected for his two-run home run. Melendez added an RBI single in the eighth to get the Bucs within four, 7-3, heading to the ninth. Back-to-back shutout innings thrown by
Carter Oliff and
Jack Vest gave ETSU a chance to tie it up by scoring four runs with three outs to play with.
Torres reached base for the third time in the contest with a walk in the ninth, but The Citadel finished off its second straight 7-3 win over the Bucs. The two losses to The Citadel marks just the second series that ETSU has lost this season.
Despite the back-to-back losses to the Bulldogs, the Bucs are still in position to clinch at least a share of the SoCon Regular Season Championship and the No. 1 seed for next week's SoCon Tournament. To do this, the Bucs must knock off the Bulldogs in Saturday's series finale. If The Citadel finishes off a sweep of the Bucs, ETSU would be the No. 2 seed if Mercer sweeps Samford and the No. 3 seed if Samford knocks off the Bears twice over the next two days.
First pitch for tomorrow's series and regular season finale is set for 1 p.m.
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