JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (April 17, 2026) – The ETSU baseball team held the lead for most of the game in the series opener against The Citadel on Friday night. However, the Bulldogs scored 10 total runs in the seventh and eighth innings to upend the Bucs, 11-8. Friday's loss moves ETSU's record to 23-12 overall and 6-4 in SoCon action.
Eight of the nine Bucs in their starting lineup picked up at least one hit on Friday.
Jamie Palmese collected three hits in the matchup, while
Luke Matlock slugged a pair of home runs and scored three runs overall.
Tristan Curless also reached base four times with a pair of hits and two walks to lead the offensive contributions for ETSU.
The Buccaneers used a total of six pitchers on Friday.
Tadan Bell started for the Bucs and registered a quality start allowing three runs on seven hits in six innings of work to go with six strikeouts. Following Bell's departure,
Andrew Cotten and
Logan Grass logged scoreless appearances out of the Buccaneer bullpen.
Friday's matchup began well for ETSU. Curless gave the Bucs a 1-0 lead as a single brought
Nate Conner in to score from second base. The Bucs gained some more breathing room in the second.
Mason Ault scored on a wild pitch to double ETSU's advantage. Conner then hit a sacrifice fly to plate
Ian Guanzon to grow ETSU's lead to three. Back-to-back doubles by Palmese (two-run double) and
Tyler Fetterman grew the Bucs' advantage to half a dozen after two innings of action.
Citadel got one of those runs back with a solo home run in the third, but ETSU got it back in the fifth with a long home run by Matlock.
The next swing in momentum came in the seventh. Bell began the inning but left with two runners on with nobody out. Now into ETSU's bullpen, nine consecutive Bulldogs reached base to completely turn the game around. The Bucs eventually got out of the jam, but eight runs came across to score and made the score, 9-7 Bulldogs.
The Bulldogs tacked on two more runs in the eighth thanks to a solo home run and a RBI double. Matlock's second solo home run of the night came in the bottom of the eighth to close the gap to three. That was as close as the Bucs would get though as six of the next seven ETSU hitters were retired to give the game one win to The Citadel.
ETSU will look to even the series in game two on Saturday afternoon. First pitch between the Bucs and Bulldogs is set for 2 p.m. from Thomas Stadium on ESPN+.
For more information on Buccaneer baseball, visit ETSUBucs.com and click on the baseball tab.
