JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (March 28, 2026) – The ETSU baseball team collected its fifth consecutive win with a 4-3 victory over VMI at Thomas Stadium on Saturday afternoon. The victory not only boosted ETSU's overall record to 19-6 and 4-1 in Southern Conference (SoCon) play but it also was ETSU Head Coach Joe Pennucci's 250^th leading the Buccaneer program.
 
Junior Michael Harpster turned in his best start of the season on Saturday afternoon. Harpster threw a season-high seven innings and allowed one unearned run on three hits, one walk, and struck out seven VMI hitters. After picking up the win on Tuesday against Virginia Tech, Stratton Scott earned his first career save after getting the final three outs on Saturday.
 
Offensively, the Bucs were limited to five hits on the day. Ian Guanzon accounted for two of the five hits with one of those being a two-run home run. The other three ETSU hits came from Nate Conner, Henry Ferguson, and Tristan Curless.
 
Harpster and VMI starter Roberto Velasquez were in control early on Saturday. Both pitchers faced the minimum number of hitters through the first two innings. The Keydets got on the scoreboard first in the third. The frame started with a leadoff walk by Cole Cook. Cook then stole second and third base to give VMI its first runner in scoring position of the day. It looked like the Bucs would get out of the jam, but an errant throw allowed Cook to come in and score the game's first run.
 
ETSU quickly answered that run with a few of their own in the bottom half of the inning. Ty Galusky was hit by a pitch, which led into Guanzon squaring up a pitch from Velasquez and hitting it over the left field wall for his third home run of the year.

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Curless drove in ETSU's third run of the day with an RBI groundout later in the frame. The final run of the inning came from a heads-up play by Ferguson as he stole home to make the score 4-1 Bucs.
 
Neither team had much luck offensively until the ninth inning. A leadoff double and a two-run home run by VMI's Cole Raile suddenly made it an one-run game, 4-3. Scott was called in from the bullpen and retired the next three Keydet hitters in order to finish off the win for ETSU. The win is the Bucs' 16^th in 17 games at Thomas Stadium this season.
 
ETSU will look to complete the sweep of the Keydets on Sunday afternoon in the series finale. First pitch for that tilt is set for 1 p.m. from Thomas Stadium.

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