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This weekend at Thomas Stadium in Johnson City, ETSU hosted top seed Mercer. Mercer coming in as the Projected #1 Seed for the SoCon Baseball Tournament in Greenville, while the Bucs are tied with The Citadel for 5th Seed.
Game One, Bucs and Bears on Thursday Night
Game One for the series was on Thursday evening, with a first pitch at 5pm. The Bucs had a slow start on earning runs, and Mercer had a 5-0 lead by the middle of the third inning. ETSU was finally able to respond in the bottom of the third with a homer from Nate Conner. This sent Mason Ault to home as well for a score of 5-2. Mercer came back and responded in the fourth as well, with 2 more runs negating the Bucs’ attempt of bridging the gap.
However, ETSU continued to rally in the bottom of the fourth, with a single from Ian Guanzon pushing Tristan Curless and Jamie Palmese to home plate. Additionally, a scoring set from Conner pushed Guanzon and Axel Melendez through home plate. One more score came from the fourth, from Ferguson singling up the middle, allowing for Andrew Hill to score. This tied it up 7-7 going into the 5th inning.
Mercer’s offense however pushed back and scored 2 more runs this matchup. One in the 5th, and a late game run in the 8th. ETSU was unable to rally late in the game and ended the contest 9-7, losing to the Bears in Game One.
Game Two; Comeback for ETSU?
Game Two for The Bucs at Thomas Stadium. First Pitch on Friday afternoon was at 2pm. The Bucs were looking to tie up the series and secure a better position for Greenville.
Starting out scoring for both ETSU and Mercer was lacking, as no runs were posted by either team until the 4th inning. Mercer scored first, putting two runs on the board, however ETSU responded with 4 runs. Juarez hit for an RBI triple, Joey Little flied out to LF to send Juarez to home as well. Additionally Hill doubled to left and Ault scored. Bucs up 4-2 starting in the 5th.
Starting in the 5th, Mercer scored 2 runs to close the gap. ETSU did respond with a 2 run RBU from Little to offset Mercer’s runs, making it 6-4 Bucs at the bottom of the 5th. Additionally, between the 5th and 8th innings though, Mercer scored 5 unanswered runs, making it 9-6 Bears. However, Ferguson made a late rally in the 8th, hitting a fly to center pushing Ault to score. Contest finished with no more additional runs. Mercer took game two, 9-7.
Game Three; Can The Bucs avoid a sweep?
Game Three, and the regular season finale for The Bucs was Saturday, May 16th. First pitch was at 1pm. If The Bucs win this last game, plus a win from Wofford, ETSU would get a bye in the SoCon baseball tournament in Greenville starting May 20th. This would be a major shift from last season. ETSU won the regular season title, as well as the conference championship in 2025.
To start things off, Mercer scored 6 runs in the top of the 1st with Curless pitching. In addition, The Bucs struggled to get out of the top of the first, putting them in a large deficit plus an error to boot. In the first, Palmese hit a single to shortstop allowing Ferguson to score, 6-1 Bears.
Top of the second, Cooper Jones takes the mound for ETSU. Jones allowed 0 runs and 2 hits. ETSU went to bat in the second and were unable to lower the margin Mercer holds. ETSU again shifted pitchers, and placed Andrew Cotton in at the top of the third. Cotton ended the top of the 3rd with no runs and no hits. Bottom of the third, no runs again for The Bucs but ended with one hit.
Top of the fourth, ETSU managed again to keep Mercer from scoring. An incredible play from ETSU’s Guanzon to Gabe Juarez stopped Logan Shepherd from scoring, tagged out at home. Bottom of the 4th, Luke Matlock homered to left field, bringing in Axel Melendez home as well. Breaking the scoring drought, Bucs are now down 6-3.
Top of the 5th, ETSU brings out Jack Vest to the pitcher’s mound. Mercer managed to bring in 3 runs to raise the deficit again to 9-3. With one out left, Vest left the mound and The Bucs brought out LHP Reilly Byers. Byers struck out Mercer’s Eli Stephens to close out the top of the 5th. Bottom of the 5th, ETSU needs to score some runs to have a chance of closing the gap to get that bye next week. ETSU was successful in a sense, where Ferguson scored off of a balk. This was only run that inning for The Bucs, bringing the score to 9-4.
Headed into the 6th, ETSU kept Byers on the mound. Byers blocked Mercer again from scoring any runs and keeping the 5 run margin at bay. Similarly to the top of the 6th, ETSU was scoreless this inning. Moving into the top of the 7th, still no pitching change from The Bucs. Mercer managed to score a single run this inning, bringing the score to 10-4. Bottom of the 7th, The Bucs went scoreless again. However, that was not without effort as Conner hit a double, then made his way to third before Palmese lined out to center and ending the inning.
Starting out the 8th, Mercer’s Brant Baughcum homered, 11-4 Bears. Byers retired from the game, and ETSU brought out Colin Eaton. Eaton did not allow more runs to go to Mercer. Bottom of the 8th, and ETSU needs a late rally to avoid the sweep. The Bucs did not score in the 8th, and had not scored since the 5th inning.
Leading into the 9th inning, ETSU kept Eaton on the mound. Despite Mercer’s best efforts, Eaton and The Bucs kept the Bears scoreless in the Ninth. Although down by 7, The Bucs continued to fight til the end. Curless homered to right, bringing Matlock to home as well. This two run hit was it for ETSU. Mercer took the series finale, in addition to the series sweep.
Post Season Preview
The SoCon Baseball Tournament will be at Fluor Field in Greenville, South Carolina. ETSU is the 6 seed, and will be facing 7 seed UNCG on May 20th at 12:30pm. This game is a single elimination game. However, if The Bucs eliminate UNCG, they advance to face Samford at 7:30pm. Additionally, the game, and tournament can be streamed on ESPN+.
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