BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (April 2, 2026) – The ETSU baseball team dropped the first game of its series on the road at Samford on Thursday night by a score of 13-7. Thursday's loss moves ETSU's record to 19-8 overall and 4-3 in SoCon play.
All eight of ETSU's hits on Thursday came from the top four hitters in its batting order.
Henry Ferguson led the charge going 3-for-5 and drove in three of ETSU's seven runs.
Jamie Palmese and
Tristan Curless chipped in two hits, and both drove in runs in the contest. Finally,
Nate Conner scored two runs and drove in one in as well with a double. Seven of ETSU's hits came with two outs on Thursday and the Bucs hit .556 in nine at-bats with runners in scoring position.
Following a scoreless first inning, the Bulldogs' bats woke up in a major way in the second inning with six runs on just two hits to gain the first advantage of the contest. Curless drove in
Mason Ault with an RBI single in the top of the third to get one of those runs back. However, a pair of walks and a hit batter led into the Samford getting that run back with a single in the bottom half of the frame to push its advantage back to six, 7-1.
The Bucs continued to chip away in the fifth. The Blue and Gold loaded the bases without a hit in front of Ferguson. ETSU's shortstop not only hustled out an infield hit to score one run, but the throw also got away from the first baseman to allow another run to score. Palmese made it a three-run inning for the Bucs with a double in the into center field making it 7-4 Samford.
Samford would score an unearned run in the bottom of the fifth to make the score 8-4. ETSU's offense continued its comeback though in the top of the sixth. Two more ETSU walks were followed by an RBI double by Conner. Ferguson delivered again later in the stanza with a two-run single to make it a one-run game, 8-7.
The Bulldog lead moved back to four runs in the bottom of the sixth, 11-7, thanks to another multi-run inning that featured just one hit. Samford then tacked on two more insurance runs in the eighth inning to make it a six-run deficit for the Bucs in the ninth. The Bulldogs then turned the ball over to Drew Drunkenmiller, and he retired the Bucs in order to seal the game one win for Samford.
The Bucs and Bulldogs will resume their series on Friday. First pitch is set for 6 p.m. eastern time.
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