CULLOWHEE, N.C. (March 10, 2009) -The ETSU baseball team was defeated by Western Carolina Tuesday afternoon at Hennon Stadium in Culllowhee, N.C., 11-5

The Catamounts took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the third as Brent Greer doubled down the line in left to bring in two runs. Western Carolina added another run on a Tyler Kirkpatrick grounder to short to make the score 3-0 after three innings.

In the bottom of the fifth, the Catamounts added two more runs on RBI singles by J.C. Lyons and Kirkpatrick to increase the WCU lead to 5-0.

The Bucs (5-5, 1-2 A-Sun) got on the board in the bottom of the fifth as Derek Trent (Kingsport, Tenn.) came in to score on a Catamount error. Later in the inning Danny Petro (Atlanta, Ga.) scored on a Ben Allen (Kingsport, Tenn.) grounder back up the middle to cut the Western Carolina lead to 5-2. Garrett May (Roswell, Ga.) added another run in the inning drawing a walk with the bases loaded to bring in Allen to make the score 5-3.

Ross Heffley singled in two runs for the Catamounts in the bottom of the sixth to give WCU a 7-3 lead.

Troy Mendez (Roswell, Ga.) cut the Western Carolina lead to 7-4 in the top of the seventh as he singled to left driving in Trent. Cory Betterson (Atlanta, Ga.) added another run for the Bucs in the inning as he singled in Mendez on a ball through the right side to make the score 7-5.

WCU added four insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth on four hits to make the final 11-5.

ETSU is back in action tomorrow at 4 p.m. as the Bucs face Western Carolina in game two of the mid-week series in Cullowhee, N.C. Please visit www.ETSUBucs.com for more information on ETSU baseball and all other Buccaneer athletic news.

Western Carolina 11, ETSU 5 (March 10, 2009 at Cullowhee, N.C.)
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ETSU............ 000  003  200   -  5     6   2  (5-5, 1-2 A-Sun)

WCU............. 003  052  04x   -  11  17  2  (9-2, 3-0 SoCon)

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Pitchers: ETSU - Dustin Plumlee; Drew Story (6); Darren Caldwell (7); Taylor Gouffon (8)

WCU - Kyle Stewart; Tyler Brownlow (6); Matt Benedict (6); Brandon Johnson (7)
Win - Kyle Stewart (1-0) Loss -  Dustin Plumlee (2-1) Save -  Brandon Johnson (1)