JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (May 13, 2026) – The ETSU baseball team will close out the regular season with a key three-game series against Mercer at Thomas Stadium. The series is scheduled to run from Thursday through Saturday with game one set for a 5 p.m. first pitch on Thursday.
Probable Pitching Matchups
RHP Garrett Lambert (MER) vs. RHP Logan Grass (ETSU) – Thursday @ 5 p.m. | Live Stats | ESPN+
RHP Miguel Hugas (MER) vs. RHP Michael Harpster (ETSU) – Friday @ 2 p.m. | Live Stats | ESPN+
TBA (MER) vs. TBA (ETSU) – Saturday @ 1 p.m. | Live Stats | ESPN+
Last Time Out – The Buccaneers earned a 9-5 win on the road at Wofford on Sunday afternoon. With that victory, the Bucs improved to 30-19 overall and 10-8 in SoCon action.
Raising the Bar for Buccaneer Baseball – ETSU has enjoyed some of its best seasons ever recently. By reaching 30 wins on Sunday with the victory over Wofford, ETSU has now won 30 or more games in three straight seasons (36 – 2024, 41 – 2025). The last time that the Bucs won 30 or more games in three straight seasons was 1980-82.
Plenty of Postseason Implications – With the regular season coming to an end this week, there's still plenty to play for when it comes to seeding for next week's SoCon Tournament in Greenville, South Carolina. The Bucs enter the final series tied for fourth with Samford with a 10-8 record. Depending upon the results in ETSU's series and from around the rest of the league, the Bucs could finish anywhere from first to sixth. If the Bucs finish first or second, they'll get the valuable double bye and would start play on Thursday. A third or fourth place finish would help ETSU avoid the single elimination portion of the tournament, while finishing fifth or sixth would mean the Bucs would play a single elimination game on Wednesday against either the seventh or eighth seed. For more information on the 2026 SoCon Tournament, click
HERE.
Home Field Advantage – ETSU will play its final three games of the season at home, which should be mean some good things for the Bucs. In 2026, the Bucs are 19-4 at Thomas Stadium and are outscoring opposing teams 220-102. The 19-4 home record for ETSU translates to a .826 winning percentage, which only sits behind its opponent this weekend Mercer's mark of .935 with a 29-2 home record among SoCon squads.
About Mercer – The Bears enter the final series of the regular season with a chance to win the SoCon Regular Season Championship. Mercer, which is 40-13 overall and 12-6 in SoCon play, is coming off a victory over No. 3 Georgia Tech on Tuesday by a score of 12-9. Offense is the strength of Mercer's squad this spring as it ranks among the top 10 nationally in runs scored (3
rd – 489), home runs (3
rd – 117), slugging percentage (3
rd - .585), runs per game (5
th – 9.2), walks (5
th – 312), on-base percentage (6
th - .439), batting average (7
th – .319), and hits (7
th – 575).
Series Rewind vs. Mercer – The history between ETSU and Mercer dates back to both teams' days as members of the Atlantic Sun. Overall, the Bears hold the edge in the all-time series with a 47-22 record. However, the Bucs have won the last two series between the two programs and knocked the Bears out of the 2024 SoCon Tournament.
For more information on Buccaneer baseball, visit ETSUBucs.com and click on the baseball tab.
