Bucs wrap up the regular season winning 10 of their last 12 conference games

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (May 21, 2016) – The ETSU baseball team ended its regular season on a positive note as the Bucs completed the series sweep over The Citadel with a 10-6 Senior Day win on Saturday afternoon at Thomas Stadium.  

INSIDE THE NUMBERS

The Bucs, who scored five runs in the third and four more in the fifth, finished the regular season winning 10 of their final 12 conference games en route to moving to 26-28 overall, 13-11 in SoCon play … With the sweep, ETSU earned the No. 5 seed in next week’s SoCon Championship and will play No. 4 seed Furman Wednesday morning at 9 a.m., from Fluor Field in Greenville, S.C. 

ETSU swept The Citadel for the first time since 2004, while also sweeping three of its last four SoCon series to end the season … Overall, the Blue and Gold swept three series (VMI, at Samford and The Citadel), while winning five total on the campaign (also took two of three from Furman and three of four against Purdue). 

As a team, the Blue and Gold registered 10 hits with senior Jeremy Taylor (Fayetteville, Ga.) leading the charge with four hits … Taylor posted hits in his first four at-bats and finished 4-for-5 with a double, run scored and an RBI … The Fayetteville, Ga. native played in his 221st career game on Saturday, which moved him past Paul Hoilman for second all-time in program history … Taylor’s four-hit game pushed his career total to 255. 

Seniors Kevin Phillips (St. Louis, Mo.), Andrew Lasure (Stanford, Ky.) and Josh Jacques (Rollinsford, N.H.) also provided the Bucs with key performances in their final game at Thomas Stadium … Phillips capped off the five-run third inning with a three-run home run, while Lasure went 2-for-3 with two doubles, a run scored and two RBI … Jacques made his 14th career start on Saturday and earned the win (2-1) after allowing two runs (one earned) on two hits with a career-high five strikeouts in 3.2 innings. 

Sophomore Hagen Owenby (Knoxville, Tenn.) added some offense of his own as he ignited the third inning rally with a clutch two-out, two-run scoring single and led off the sixth inning with a home run to left – marking his team-leading 17th round-tripper of the season. 

Senior Danny Carrier (Cincinnati, Ohio) got the starting nod a third base and worked a pair of walks, while scoring a run on Taylor’s RBI single in the fifth. 

Sophomore right-hander Dillon Cate (Sevierville, Tenn.) retired all four hitters he faced out of the pen on Saturday … Cate got the Blue and Gold out of a jam in the seventh and retired the side in the eighth. 

ETSU recorded double-digit hits for the 35th time, while the Blue and Gold belted multiple home runs for the 19th time on the campaign. 

Seniors Danny Carrier, Lee Haeberle (Hendersonville, Tenn.), Josh Jacques (Rollinsford, N.H.), Griffin Krieg (Nashville, Tenn.), Andrew Lasure, Robby McCabe (New Port Richey, Fla.), Nathan Millsap (Kingsport, Tenn.), Kevin Phillips, Jeremy Taylor and Trey York (Knoxville, Tenn.) played their final game at Thomas Stadium on Saturday ... The 10 seniors were honored with a pregame ceremony, while they got to throw out the first pitch to their mothers prior to the game. 

Jordan Buster (0-2) suffered the loss for The Citadel as he was charged with three runs on four hits in 2.2 innings. 

Like the Bucs, the Bulldogs also totaled 10 hits with Stephen Windham and Bret Hines both posting two hits each … Windham’s two hits went for doubles and he drove in three, while Ben Peden homered and drove in two runs. 

The Citadel lost eight straight to finish the regular season and moved to 16-40, 6-18 … The Bulldogs will play VMI in the SoCon play-in game Tuesday morning at 10 a.m. 

HOW THEY SCORED

Josh Jacques faced the minimum in the first two innings – including striking out the side in the top of the first – but The Citadel plated an unearned run in the third to go ahead, 1-0. 

The lead didn’t last long as the Blue and Gold pushed across five runs in the third and four more in the fifth to take a 9-2 lead. Kevin Phillips’ three-run homer highlighted the five-run third, while Hagen Owenby drove in the first two runs with a two-out RBI single to right-center. 

After Ben Peden connected on a solo home run in the fourth, ETSU answered with the four-run fifth to take a seven-run lead. Andrew Lasure drove in a pair of runs with a double to right, while he scored on a wild pitch and Jeremy Taylor capped off the inning with his fourth straight hit – an RBI single to right – to bring in Danny Carrier. 

Both teams scored a run in the sixth as Stephen Windham laced an RBI double to right-center, but Jamin McCann (Kingsport, Tenn.) entered out of the pen to get the Blue and Gold out of a bases loaded jam by inducing Barrett Charpia to hit into an inning-ending fly out to center. From there, Owenby led off the bottom half of the inning with a solo home run to left making it a 10-3 game. 

The Bulldogs scratched across a pair of runs in the top of the seventh, but with two outs and runners on the corners, Dillon Cate came on to get the Blue and Gold out of trouble. The Buccaneer right-hander forced Taylor Corthran to fly out to center keeping it a 10-5 score. 

Cate retired the side in the eighth, while the Bulldogs scored their final run on a sac fly RBI by Windham in then ninth; however, right-hander Peyton Taylor (Kingsport, Tenn.) got Mike Deese to fly out to Taylor in center for the final out of the game. 

WHAT’S AHEAD?

ETSU begins its run for a Southern Conference championship on Wednesday morning at Fluor Field in Greenville, S.C. … The fifth-seeded Buccaneers take on No. 4 Furman at 9 a.m. … Click here for more information on the SoCon Championship. 

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