ASHEVILLE, N.C. (May 6, 2025) – The ETSU baseball team extended its winning streak to six games on Tuesday with a 12-5 victory on the road at UNC Asheville. The win, which was ETSU's 14
th in the last 15 meetings against Asheville, boosted ETSU's overall record to 35-12 on the 2025 campaign. Only five teams in ETSU baseball history have won more games than this year's team (1981 - 44 wins, 1980 – 39 wins, 2011, 2013 and 2024 – 36 wins).
ETSU's offense, which scored 21 runs against this same Bulldog team a week ago, totaled 18 hits in the win and six Bucs had multi-hit games. Leading the charge was
Will Smoot as he went 5-for-6 with two doubles and four RBI. Smoot anchored the bottom of ETSU's order that was extremely productive. The last four spots in ETSU's lineup combined for 10 hits and nine RBI in the win over Asheville. The Buccaneers also continued to add to their single season school record home run total with four more long balls against the Bulldogs.
Cody Miller,
Lenny Montesano,
Jamie Palmese and
Cooper Torres all hit homers in the contest. For Torres, it was his team-leading 21
st of the season. Torres became just the fifth Buccaneer ever to hit 21 or more home runs in a season joining Paul Hoilman,
Cameron Sisneros, Anthony Russell and Mike Nipper.
The Bucs used eight different pitchers to secure the win on Tuesday. Five of the eight ETSU pitchers logged scoreless appearances.
Carter Oliff posted the longest outing (two innings) without a run coming across and
JR Fordham was awarded the win with 1.1 shutout innings with a season-high three strikeouts.
ETSU did not waste much time in getting a lead against the Bulldogs as Miller slugged a leadoff home run to start the contest. The home run was Miller's 15
th of the season after hitting a total of four in his first two seasons as a Buc. The Blue and Gold would tack on three more runs in the second with two of those coming on the two-run home run by Palmese.
Trailing by four, the Bulldogs got two runs back in the third and one more in the fourth to get within a run of the Bucs heading to the fifth. Montesano pushed the Buccaneer lead back to three with a two-run blast in the fifth before RBI singles by
Joey Little and Smoot chased home two more runs in the sixth. ETSU continued to gain separation with a four-run seventh. Torres got things started with his 21
st home run of the season and then Smoot lined a double into the gap to score two more and give the Bucs a nine-run lead, 12-3.
Asheville did plate a couple of runs in the eighth, but
Andrew Ronne came in to toss a scoreless ninth inning to lock down the 12-5 win for the Bucs.
The Buccaneers will play their final home games of the season this weekend when they host Wofford in a three-game series. The pivotal SoCon series is set to get underway at 5 p.m. on Friday from Thomas Stadium.
For more information on Buccaneer baseball, visit ETSUBucs.com and click on the baseball tab.
