LEXINGTON, Va. (May 2, 2025) – The ETSU baseball team opened the month of May with a 9-2 victory on the road at VMI on Friday evening. Friday's victory boosts ETSU's overall record to 32-12 and 9-4 in SoCon play in 2025.
 
Offensively, the Bucs totaled just seven hits in the win but worked 10 walks against VMI's pitching staff. Tristan Curless drove in two runs, scored two more and added a pair of hits on the day. Curless joined Blake Jacklin, Grant Gallagher and Axel Melendez as fellow Bucs that scored two runs against the Keydets. Gallagher also slugged his team-leading 19^th home run of the season and JD Yakubinis drove in two of ETSU's nine runs as well.
 
On the mound, the Bucs used four pitchers to secure Friday's series-opening win. Carter Fink started the game for the Blue and Gold and worked the first 4.2 innings. Brady Frederick followed Fink and threw 3.1 perfect innings on 40 pitches to go with five strikeouts. Frederick has now thrown 10 consecutive scoreless innings across his last four appearances. A combination of Logan Grass and JR Fordham recorded the final three outs for the Bucs as they finished off their fifth consecutive win over VMI.
 
ETSU pushed across the first run of the game in the top of the second. Melendez worked a walk with one out and then tagged up on a flyout to move into scoring position with two away. Yakubinis, who drove in a career-high six runs in Tuesday's win over UNC Asheville, brought Melendez home with a double and gave ETSU a 1-0 lead.
 
Following that run in the second inning by the Bucs, there was not a ton of offense by either team. It looked like VMI might break through with a big inning in the fifth. The Keydets loaded the bases, which led to the Bucs making a call to the bullpen. Frederick came into a key spot and delivered a clutch strikeout to keep ETSU in front, 1-0.
 
An RBI double from Joey Little and a sacrifice fly by Yakubinis extended ETSU's advantage to three runs, 3-0, in the top of the sixth. With Frederick continuing to mow down the Keydet hitters, the Bucs tacked on more insurance in the seventh on just one hit to make the score 6-0. Curless then delivered an RBI single in the top of the ninth before Gallagher blasted a two-run home run make it 9-0 Bucs going to the bottom of the ninth.
 
The Keydets, which were limited to only two hits in the game's first eight innings, did plate two runs in the ninth inning but the cushion that the Bucs built up throughout the game proved to be more than enough to secure their seventh win in the last eight games.
 
ETSU will aim to clinch the series win against the Keydets tomorrow afternoon. Currently, game two of the series is set to get underway at 2 p.m. Stay tuned to etsubucs.com for any schedule updates as they become available.

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