Friday, March 21, 2008

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (March 21, 2008) - The ETSU baseball team scored four runs in the top of the ninth to beat Jacksonville, 5-3, under a full moon at Sessions Stadium in Jacksonville, Fla. on Friday night.

With the win ETSU (4-15, 4-7) won its first series of the season. The Bucs were outhit by the Dolphins 6-8, but good pitching by starter Ty Sarchet (Jacksonville, Fla.) who went five innings only giving up one run on three hits while striking out five and walking one.

Jacksonville started the scoring in the bottom of the first as Kyle Fleming singled to first driving in a run to take a 1-0 lead. The Dolphins scored again in the bottom of the seventh inning on an RBI single by Kevin Ferreira to make the score 2-0. In the same inning the Dolphins would score another run on a Brad Simmons suicide squeeze to take a 3-0.

ETSU got on the board in the top of the eight as Nick Belcher (Abingdon, Va.) drove in Bart Roark (Mountain City, Tenn.) on a grounder to second to cut the Jacksonville lead to 3-1.

In the bottom of the eighth, Jacksonville attempted another suicide squeeze with two outs, but pitcher Dustin Plumlee (Powell, Tenn.) made a great play flipping the ball to catcher Danny Petro (Atlanta, Ga.) to get the third out of the inning to keep the score 3-1.

In the top of the ninth with runners on first and second Petro would double to left driving in Troy Mendez (Roswell, Ga.) to cut the lead to 3-2. Bubba Herbold (Knoxville, Tenn.) would get hit by a pitch to load the bases as Roark would come up to the plate and double to right driving in Paul Hoilman (Johnson City, Tenn.) and Petro to take a 4-3 lead. Herbold would come in to score on a Sean Green wild pitch to make the score 5-3.

Junior Ben Andrews (Leesburg, Fla.) pitched a scoreless ninth as Andrews picked up his first save of the season and the Bucs completed the comeback.

Mendez and Roark both had great games for the Bucs as they both were 2-for-4 on the game, and Roark had two RBI his two doubles ignited the Buccaneer comeback.

ETSU is back in action tomorrow at 1 p.m. in the final game of the series in Jacksonville, Fla. at Sessions Stadium as the Bucs will look to sweep the Dolphins.

ETSU 5, Jacksonville 3 (March 21, 2008 at Jacksonville, Fla.)
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ETSU............000  000  014   - 5  6  1   (4-15, 4-7 A-Sun)

JU.................100  000  200   -  3  8  1   (13-6, 7-4 A-Sun)

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Pitchers: ETSU - Ty Sarchet; Dustin Plumlee (6); Ben Andrews (9)
JU - Carson Andrew; Billy Schlee (8); Sean Green (9)

Win - Dustin Plumlee (1-1) Loss - Billy Schlee (0-1) Save - Ben Andrews (1)