HARRISONBURG, Va. (March 7, 2026) – The ETSU baseball team dropped a pair of games to James Madison on Saturday afternoon. ETSU dropped the suspended game, which started on Friday, by a score of 11-1 in seven innings. JMU then clinched the series win over the Bucs with a 6-4 victory in the originally scheduled contest for Saturday. With the pair of losses, the Bucs move to 9-5 on the season.
Game One Recap – Picking the game up from Friday in the bottom of the fourth, the Dukes wasted little time in getting their offense going. A three-run home run greeted ETSU's new pitcher
Reid Brosnan to promptly erase the Bucs' 1-0 lead they brought into the day. JMU was not done there as it added another three-run home run, a solo home run, and an RBI single to push its lead out to eight runs, 9-1, heading to the fifth inning.
JMU tacked on two more runs in the bottom of the sixth to push its advantage out to 10, 11-1. ETSU's offense was held quiet in game one.
Ian Guanzon picked up a single in the top of the seventh, but JMU clinched the run-rule victory over the Bucs, 11-1.
Game Two Recap – ETSU slugged three home runs against the Dukes in the second game of the day, but James Madison allowed little else against the Bucs as it clinched the series with a 6-4 win.
Tristan Curless hit two of the three home runs for ETSU, which was his first multi-home run game of his Buccaneer career.
Nate Conner also launched one over the fence for his fifth of the season.
Jamie Palmese and
Ty Galusky accounted for ETSU's other two hits in the contest.
Curless got the Bucs started with solo home run in the top of the first. ETSU starting pitcher
Michael Harpster, who had not allowed a home run through his first 15.2 innings pitched this season, allowed solo home runs in the second and third innings to give JMU the lead, 2-1. Curless then evened the score with his second homer of the day. It was the second multi-home run by a Buc this season (
Nate Conner vs. Sacred Heart on February 21).
The string of four straight solo home runs was broken by James Madison in the fifth as it connected for a two-run blast and added an RBI single later in the frame to grow its lead to 5-2. Conner got one of those runs back with a RBI single in the sixth, but the Dukes answered with yet another long ball in the seventh to make the score, 6-3.
Conner hit his home run to begin the ninth inning to give ETSU some momentum back. However, a groundout and a pair of strikeouts by JMU reliever Luke McGrath put an end to ETSU's comeback hopes.
Next Up - ETSU and James Madison will wrap up their three-game series on Sunday afternoon. First pitch is set for 1 p.m. on ESPN+.
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