CHARLESTON, S.C. (May 17, 2025) – For the first time since 1980, the ETSU baseball team are the outright SoCon Regular Season Champions. The Buccaneers captured their first league title in over four decades thanks to a 11-2 victory over The Citadel on Saturday afternoon. With Saturday's win the Bucs not only finish the regular season with an overall record of 38-15 (14-7 SoCon) but also earn the No. 1 seed for next week's SoCon Baseball Tournament.
 
After being held to three runs in each of the first two games of the series against The Citadel, the Buccaneer offense broke out with 11 runs on 17 hits. Seven of the nine Bucs in the starting lineup had multi-hit efforts. Jamie Palmese continues to swing it well going 3-for-5 with a home run, three runs scored and two RBI, while Axel Melendez drove in a team-high four runs in another 3-for-5 effort at the plate for the Bucs. Cody Miller, Tristan Curless, Grant Gallagher, Henry Ferguson and JD Yakubinis all finished the win with two hits a piece for the Blue and Gold.
 
On the mound, the Bucs used just two pitchers to nail down their third SoCon Regular Season Championship in school history. Michael Harpster started the game for ETSU and worked the first 4.2 innings and allowed two runs on two hits. Brady Frederick followed Harpster and threw 4.1 shutout innings surrendering just one hit and one walk to finish off the win. Frederick improved to 7-1 on the season and lowered his ERA to a SoCon-best 2.10 entering postseason play.

 
After a scoreless first inning, the Bucs broke through with a four-run second. ETSU totaled six singles in the stanza to put the pressure on the Bulldogs. Ferguson, Melendez, Yakubinis and Blake Jacklin all drove in runs in the four-run second.
 
Harpster had the Bulldog offense off balance for most of his outing on Saturday. The sophomore began his start with four perfect innings. The Citadel scored two runs on two hits and a walk in the bottom of the fifth. With the tying run coming to the plate, the Bucs turned the ball over to Frederick and he ended the Bulldog scoring threat with a flyout.
 
Frederick continued to hold down the Bulldog offense through the middle to late innings. Palmese slugged his 16^th home run of the season to extend the Buccaneer lead in the eighth, 5-2. ETSU was not done adding on, however, as it scored six runs on five hits to blow the game wide open and extend its lead to nine, 11-2. Frederick then retired the Bulldogs in order on a pair of groundouts and a strikeout to finish off win and bring the SoCon regular season title back to Johnson City.
 
The Bucs will now turn their attention to the SoCon Baseball Tournament next week at Fluor Field in Greenville, S.C. By earning the No. 1 seed, the Bucs won't play their first game until Friday morning at 9 a.m. ETSU will play either No. 4 Mercer, No. 5 Western Carolina or No 8. VMI in its first matchup of the tournament depending upon the results from games next Wednesday and Thursday. Stay tuned to etsubucs.com for the latest updates on the Bucs' time in Greenville.

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