JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (WJHL) – The Bucs bounced back from a gut-wrenching Friday night loss to the Spartans to put away the visitors in just eight inning on Saturday morning, 13-3.
Cam Sisneros jolted the Thomas Stadium crowd awake with a two-run homer in the first inning to open the scoring for ETSU.
UNCG would cut the deficit in half with a solo shot of their own in the third inning, making it 2-1.
The Blue and Gold scored seven-straight runs over the next innings to push the lead to 10-1. Ashton King rocked a solo homerun to start the fifth inning, as Sisneros brought the dugout, and the regular season finale crowd, to its feet with a three-run blast to right field to close it out.
The Spartans pulled back to within 10-3 in the eighth inning, but the Bucs added three more in the bottom half to trigger the run rule. Cody Miller drove home the final run on a single to right field, one of 15 ETSU hits on the day.
‘We overcame the adversity after a tough loss yesterday,” Sisneros said after the game. “Didn’t let the time change affect us and came out here and did exactly what we needed to do. Couldn’t be more proud of this team.”
On the mound, senior Cade Carlson threw an efficient 5.0 innings, allowing just a pair of runs on seven hits, while striking out six batters. He twice helped the Blue and Gold escape an inning with a bases-loaded strikeout.
“Today, you know, we were just so locked in all game,” Carlson said. “We’ve been locked in the past month – just fighting to get the seed that we got.”
With the victory, ETSU has secured its fourth-consecutive SoCon series win, and with it, the No. 4 seed in this year’s conference tournament.
“Couldn’t be more proud,” ETSU head coach Joe Pennucci said. “I’ve had a lot of cool moments in baseball, but this is a special one because we’ve talked from the beginning of the year about moving the needle and getting in the top four byes in the conference and we did that.”
The Bucs will play the winner of No. 5 VMI and No. 8 The Citadel on Thursday at 3 p.m. in Greenville, South Carolina.
