JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (May 16, 2026) – The ETSU baseball team dropped its final regular-season game to Mercer on Saturday afternoon by a score of 11-6 at Thomas Stadium. With the loss, the Bucs wrap up the regular season with a record of 30-22 and 10-11 in SoCon play. Mercer, meanwhile, clinched the outright SoCon Regular Season Championship, its first since 2017, with Saturday's win.
The Buccaneers finished with 10 hits in the contest.
Henry Ferguson went 3-for-5 with a double and two runs scored.
Luke Matlock also had a two-hit, two-RBI day in his return to the lineup, going 2-for-3 with a home run and a double.
Tristan Curless also drove in two runs for ETSU on a two-run home run, and
Jamie Palmese accounted for the final RBI for the Bucs on the day.
Six different Buccaneer pitchers saw time on the mound on Saturday. Curless started and allowed six runs (five earned) on six hits.
Andrew Cotten and
Colin Eaton both threw two scoreless innings against the Bears.
Cooper Jones also tossed a scoreless frame in the matchup for ETSU.
With a share of the SoCon Regular Season Championship locked up entering play on Saturday, Mercer wasted little time in jumping on the Bucs. The Bears had constant traffic on the base paths in the first inning and eventually finished with six runs on six hits.
Ferguson slashed a double into the gap for ETSU's first hit in the bottom of the first, and he scored later in the frame on an infield single by Palmese to get the Bucs on the board. Matlock, who hadn't played since May 1 at UConn, got the Bucs within three with a two-run blast in the fourth to make it 6-3 Mercer.
Three more runs by Mercer at the top of the fifth moved the Bears' lead back to six, 9-3. Ferguson scored ETSU's fourth run of the day in the bottom half of the inning on a balk. The Bears tallied single runs in the seventh and eighth to pad their lead.
After their run in the fifth, the Bucs had a runner reach base in every inning but did not bring them in to score until the ninth. In his final at-bat in Thomas Stadium, Curless smacked a two-run home run to right field to bring home Matlock. The blast from Curless made it a five-run game, 11-6, which was the final score.
The Bucs will open the SoCon Baseball Tournament on Wednesday. ETSU, which will be the No. 6 seed for the tournament, drew No. 7 seed UNC Greensboro for a single-elimination game. First pitch is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. from the Fluor Field in Greenville, S.C.
For more information on Buccaneer baseball, visit ETSUBucs.com and click on the baseball tab.
