GREENSBORO, N.C. (March 20, 2026) – The ETSU baseball team dropped its first Southern Conference (SoCon) game of the season on Friday night at UNC Greensboro by a score of 6-3. The loss, which breaks ETSU's five-game winning streak, moves the Bucs' record to 14-6 on the season.
Most of the highlights offensively for ETSU on Friday came from
Tristan Curless. Curless finished a triple shy of a cycle in a 3-for-4 day at the plate with a two-run home run and three RBI overall.
Nate Conner also had a multi-hit game for ETSU finishing 2-for-4 with a run scored.
Henry Ferguson and
Mason Ault also picked up hits for the Bucs on the night.
Tadan Bell started Friday's game for ETSU and took the loss dropping his record to 3-2. Bell allowed five runs on eight hits and walked three in his first SoCon start. Bell did total a season-high six strikeouts in five innings on Friday. Following Bell, the trio of
Carter Oliff,
Derek McCarley, and
Tyler Kropis combined to not allow an earned run come across the plate for the remainder of the game out of the ETSU bullpen.
ETSU wasted little time on getting on the scoreboard on Friday. A trio of singles from Ferguson, Conner, and Curless pushed across the first run of the night for the Bucs in the top of the first. That RBI by Curless was his 69
th as a Buccaneer in his 70
th game played.
UNCG flashed some power in the bottom of the second with back-to-back solo home runs from Luke Holland and Brody Gardner. Before those two long balls, Bell had begun his ETSU career with 24.1 innings pitched without allowing a home run.
Suddenly trailing 2-1, the Bucs battled back immediately. Conner got the rally started with his second single of the contest before Curless launched a long opposite field home run to give the Bucs the lead back, 3-2. For Curless, it was his ninth home run of the season in his 20th game after hitting 10 in 50 games in 2025.
Bell got out of a bases-loaded jam against the Spartans in the third, but UNCG regained the lead in the fourth. A single and a walk led into a three-run home run by Jacob Dilley to push the Spartans back out front, 5-3.
UNCG added one more run to its lead in the seventh, which was unearned. Unfortunately, ETSU's offense could not get anything going off UNCG's starter Noah Chapman or reliever JT Weaver. After Curless led the sixth inning off with a double, the tandem of Chapman and Weaver retired 12 ETSU hitters in a row to seal the 6-3 win.
The Bucs will look to even the series in game two on Saturday afternoon. Game two is scheduled for 2 p.m. from Greensboro on ESPN+.
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