Wednesday, April 22, 2009

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (April 22, 2009) - After falling behind 6-0, the ETSU baseball team exploded for 13 straight runs to defeat Radford 13-11 Wednesday night at Cardinal Park.

The win is the sixth straight as the Bucs improve to 20-19 on the year and 9-12 in conference, while the Highlanders drop 19-15 overall.

Senior Ben Andrews (Leesburg, Fla.) earned his second victory of the season as he went 3.1 scoreless innings allowing only two hits with two walks and two strikeouts. Highlander starter Josh Hammonds was tabbed with the loss giving up eight runs on ten hits in 4.2 innings.

Shortstop Garrett May (Roswell, Ga.) led the way for the Bucs going 3-for-4 on the night with five RBI. Paul Hoilman (Johnson City, Tenn.) and catcher Derek Trent (Kingsport, Tenn.) also had good nights as they each had three hits in the game.

Radford took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second as Mario Duarte drove in a run on a sac fly to right. The Highlanders added another run in the inning as Robert Lamas came in to score on a wild pitch to give RU a 2-0 lead.

The Highlanders scored four runs on five hits in the top of the third including a three-run home run to right center by Lamas to make the score 6-0.

Third baseman Bo Reeder (Cookeville, Tenn.) cut the Highlander lead in half in the bottom of the third as he drove his 12^th home run of the season over the fence in right center for a three-run home run to cut the lead to 6-3.

The Bucs added two more runs in bottom of the fourth as May singled up the middle scoring the designated hitter Danny Petro (Atlanta, Ga.) and right fielder Cory Betterson (Atlanta, Ga.) to narrow the gap to 6-5.

ETSU tied the game at 6-all in the bottom of the fifth as second baseman Ben Allen (Kingsport, Tenn.) singled to right center scoring Hoilman from third. Later in the inning with the bases load, the Bucs took a 9-6 lead as May doubled down the left field line clearing the bases.

Left fielder Troy Mendez (Roswell, Ga.) added an insurance run for the Bucs in the bottom of the sixth as he singled up the middle scoring centerfielder Jacob Fabry (Chattanooga, Tenn.) to give ETSU a 10-6 lead. The hit increased Mendez's hit streak to 14 games. The Buccaneers added two more runs in the inning on RBI singles by Trent and Allen to bring the score to 12-6.

In the bottom of the seventh, Fabry came in to score on a wild pitch after stealing third earlier in the inning to extend the ETSU lead to 13-6.

Radford scored three runs in the top of the eighth on RBI ground outs by Reggie Keen and Jeff Kemp, and an error at short by May to cut the Bucs lead to 13-9.

Matt Hillsinger added two more runs for the Highlanders in the top of the ninth on a two-run home run to right to make the final 13-11.

The Bucs are back in action Friday at 7 p.m. as they host High Point in a three-game non-conference series at Cardinal Park. Please visit www.ETSUBucs.com for more information on ETSU baseball and all other Buccaneer athletic news.

ETSU 13, Radford 11 (April 22, 2009 at Johnson City, Tenn.)
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RU................. 024  000  032   - 11   13     1   (19-15, 10-6 Big South)

ETSU............ 003  243  10x    - 13   17     2   (20-19, 9-12 A-Sun)

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Pitchers: ETSU - Josh Gonzaga; Taylor Gouffon (2); Dustin Plumlee (2); Ben Andrews (3); Chas Byrne (7); Darren Caldwell (8); Bo Reeder (9)

RU - Josh Hammonds; Mark Beppler (5); John Lloyd (7); Jake Quigg (8)

Win - Ben Andrews (2-3) Loss - Josh Hammonds (2-1)

Home Runs - ETSU - Bo Reeder (12)

RU - Robert Lamas (2); Matt Hillsinger (1)