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East Tennessee State University

grant-gallagher-app-state
6
Winner East Tenn. St. EAST TEN 33-12, 10-4 SoCon
3
VMI VMI 26-22, 5-11 SoCon
Winner
East Tenn. St. EAST TEN
33-12, 10-4 SoCon
6
Final
3
VMI VMI
26-22, 5-11 SoCon
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
East Tenn. St. EAST TEN 0 0 3 0 0 1 0 2 0 6 8 1
VMI VMI 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 3 9 0

W: McCarley, Derek (3-0) L: J. Lloyd (4-3) S: Cotten, Andrew (1)

12
Winner East Tenn. St. EAST TEN 34-12, 11-4 SoCon
6
VMI VMI 26-23, 5-13 SoCon
Winner
East Tenn. St. EAST TEN
34-12, 11-4 SoCon
12
Final
6
VMI VMI
26-23, 5-13 SoCon
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
East Tenn. St. EAST TEN 0 0 0 0 2 0 2 2 6 12 9 0
VMI VMI 2 1 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 6 10 3

W: Cotten, Andrew (2-0) L: N. Hawley (2-2)

Game Recap: Baseball |

Bucs finish off a sweep of VMI with two wins on Sunday

ETSU becomes the tenth team in SoCon history to hit 100 home runs in a season to help Sunday’s victories over the Keydets

LEXINGTON, Va. (May 4, 2025) – The ETSU baseball team completed a series sweep of VMI on Sunday afternoon. The Bucs started by finishing Saturday's suspended game with a 6-3 victory before closing the weekend out with a 12-6 comeback win to finish off the sweep. ETSU, which has now won seven straight games against VMI, improves to 34-12 overall and 11-4 in SoCon play with the two wins on Sunday.
 
Game Two Recap – The second game of the series was picked up with two outs in the bottom of the fourth inning. ETSU held a 3-1 lead after Cooper Torres smashed a three-run home run before play concluded on Saturday. The Bucs were threatening to add on with a pair of runners on base but when the game resumed on Sunday, VMI got out of the jam to keep the deficit to two runs.
 
ETSU extended its lead in the sixth as a leadoff double by Grant Gallagher got the rally started. Gallagher moved up to third base thanks to a sacrifice bunt by Axel Melendez. Gabe Juarez then delivered a pinch-hit sacrifice fly to boost the Buccaneer lead to three, 4-1.
 
Derek McCarley, who pitched in yesterday's portion of game two, was stellar as he resumed his outing from Saturday and threw a total of four shutout innings. The Bucs gave McCarley and then Brady Frederick afterwards some more breathing room in the top of the eighth with a two-run home run by Tristan Curless to make it 6-1 ETSU. VMI would score two runs off Frederick in the bottom of the eighth to shrink ETSU's advantage. Those runs snapped an 11-inning scoreless inning streak by Frederick.
 
As play progressed to the bottom of the ninth, VMI earned a pair of walks and added a single to load the bases with nobody out. That spelled the end of the day for Frederick in favor of Andrew Cotten. Cotten worked out of the bases loaded jam without another run coming across to score to finish off the 6-3 victory for ETSU.
 
Blake Jacklin (3-for-4) and Torres (2-for-5, home run, three RBI) accounted for the two multi-hit games for the Bucs in the contest. On the mound, McCarley recorded his third win of the season to improve to 3-0, while Cotten picked up his first save of the season and third of his ETSU career.
 
Game Three Recap – VMI jumped out to a 4-0 lead on the Bucs in the series finale. However, the Bucs flexed their home run power against the Keydets slugging four home runs from four different players to power past VMI for the seventh straight time.
 
VMI led the Bucs 4-0 after four innings, but ETSU started to battle back in fifth. Cody Miller got things started with a single and then Blake Jacklin hit his fourth home run of the year to cut the Keydet lead in half, 4-2. Following a scoreless sixth, the Bucs tied it in the seventh. JD Yakubinis reached on an error leading into Jamie Palmese connecting for his 14th home run of the season to pull the Bucs back even, 4-4.
 
Suddenly tied, VMI answered with two runs of its own in the bottom half of the seventh. ETSU quickly erased the Keydet advantage as Torres and Gallagher both slugged solo homers to again tie the score. For Torres and Gallagher those eighth inning long balls were their 20th home runs of the 2025 campaign. Torres and Gallagher are the first set of ETSU teammates to have 20 or more home runs in the same season since 2010 when Paul Hoilman (25 home runs) and Bo Reeder (20 home runs) accomplished the feat.
 
Moving to the top of the ninth with the score knotted at six, the Bucs blew the game open with six runs. ETSU, which only had one hit in the ninth, showed stellar patience against the Keydet bullpen working five walks. Three of those free passes came with the bases loaded. ETSU tacked on one run with a wild pitch and scored two more on VMI's third error of the contest to grow its lead to six, 12-6.
 
Down to their last swings, VMI did load the bases in the bottom of the ninth against Cotten. With a potential big shift in momentum in the balance, the Bucs turned to Andrew Ronne to get out of the jam. The most veteran reliever for the Bucs did the job as he induced a groundout to preserve the 12-6 win for the Bucs.
 
Next Up – The Buccaneers will return to action on Tuesday when they play their final non-conference game of the regular season as they travel to take on UNC Asheville. ETSU, which downed the Bulldogs by a score of 21-7 in seven innings on Tuesday, will take on Asheville at 4 p.m. at Greenwood Baseball Field.

For more information on Buccaneer baseball, visit ETSUBucs.com and click on the baseball tab.
 
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