ETSU starts 3-0 after no-contest against Va. Tech

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (Feb. 24, 2022) – The ETSU Baseball team is back in action at Thomas Stadium this weekend as they host the Wagner Seahawks for a three-game series.

The Bucs are coming off a tough no-contest during their midweek match against Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. Starting pitcher Landon Smiddy (Knoxville, Tenn.) had faced the minimum through the Hokies’ lineup before the rain delay kicked in. ETSU led 1-0 going into the bottom of the 4^th. The game was called after a one-hour, 43-minute rain delay.

Per NCAA rules, game statistics from Tuesday’s game will not count.

Records: ETSU (3-0, 0-0 SoCon) | Wagner (0-3, 0-0 NEC)

Twitter Updates: @ETSU_Baseball

Weather Forecast: Friday (morning rain, low-40s, cloudy) | Saturday (mid-40s, cloudy) | Sunday (mid-50s, partly sunny)

Game 1: Friday, Feb. 25 | 3:00 p.m. | Live Stats

Probable Starters:

East Tennessee State – RHP Zach Kirby (1-0 | 0.00 ERA | 4.0 IP | 6 K | 0 BB)

Wagner – RHP Josh Casado (0-1 | 10.38 ERA | 4.1 IP | 1 K | 0 BB)

Game 2: Saturday, Feb. 26 | 2:00 p.m. | Live Stats

Probable Starters:

East Tennessee State – LHP Colby Stuart (1-0 | 5.40 ERA | 5.0 IP | 8 K | 1 BB)

Wagner – RHP Daniel Merkel (0-0 | 2.25 ERA | 4.0 IP | 1 K | 3 BB)

Game 3: Sunday, Feb. 27 | 1:00 p.m. | Live Stats

Probable Starters:

East Tennessee State – RHP Hunter Loyd (1-0 | 0.00 ERA | 5.0 IP | 10 K | 1 BB)

Wagner – RHP Frankie Wright (0-1 | 8.31 ERA | 4.1 IP | 3 K | 2 BB)

ETSU QUICK HITTERS

• ETSU enters the weekend 3-0 following a home sweep against Northern Kentucky to open the season and a no-contest against Virginia Tech earlier in the week.
• Colby Stuart (Elon, N.C.) and Hunter Loyd (Knoxville, Tenn.) each posted their first wins of the season last weekend after Stuart fanned a career-high eight over five innings on Saturday and Loyd tied his career-high with 10 over the same distance.
• Four Bucs posted a slugging percentage over 1.000 last weekend: Garett Wallace (Sanford, Fla.), Noah Webb (Kodak, Tenn.), Bryce Hodge (Knoxville, Tenn.), and Léo Jiminian (Saint-Lo, France). ETSU’s .636 team slugging percentage ranks sixth in the nation.
• Ashton King (Knoxville, Tenn.), who led the Bucs in hits last season, comes into the weekend doing just that with a team-high seven hits and six runs.
• Jared Paladino (Levittown, N.Y.) put up a team-high six RBIs last weekend, all of which coming in last Saturday’s 12-4 win over Northern Kentucky. Paladino’s six RBIs in a game is a career-high for the junior transfer.
• ETSU’s pitching ranks among the best in the nation to start the season as the Bucs are sixth in walks allowed per nine innings (2.00), 11^th in strikeouts per nine innings (13.7), and third in strikeout-to-walk ratio (6.83).
• Half of ETSU’s pitchers (7-of-14) that made their season debut this season started their outing with a strikeout. Two of the three weekend starters started their outing with strikeouts.
• The last time Wagner came to Johnson City, starting pitcher Landon Knack (Johnson City, Tenn.)broke the program single-game record for most individual strikeouts with 16 in just six innings of work.
• This will be the third weekend series between these programs. The Bucs hosted Wagner in 1998 for their first meeting, sweeping a four-game set to open their season. Wagner came to ETSU in 2019 and the Bucs swept that three-game series as part of three-consecutive weekend sweeps.
• ETSU is one of four SoCon teams that remains undefeated. 

ABOUT WAGNER

• Wagner enters the weekend 0-3 after being swept by College of Charleston last weekend.
• Wagner went 11-25 last season and 8-22 in NEC play.
• Ethan Valdez is the team’s returning batting-average leader after hitting .284 in 32 games.
• Dante Faicchio comes into the weekend leading the team with a .333 batting average and the team’s only two home runs on the season. Faicchio also leads the Seahawks in hits, runs, RBI’s, slugging, and total bases.
• This weekend’s project rotation for NKU combined for 32 of the team’s 48 starts last season as Gerl started 13, Klingenbeck started 11 and Richardson got the nod for eight.
• Head Coach Craig Noto enters his first season leading Wagner baseball after serving as an assistant coach for the Seahawks for five seasons.
• Wagner was picked to finish fifth in the Northeast Conference preseason poll.

WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN

ETSU’s hot start to the season was barred by weather on Tuesday after ETSU jumped out to a 1-0 lead against Virginia Tech on the road. The game was called after three and a half innings, but ETSU’s pitching was the story of the game. Landon Smiddy took a no-hitter into the fourth inning after facing the minimum and striking out five of Virginia Tech’s nine batters.

MR. 100

With Saturday’s 12-4 win over Northern Kentucky, Head Coach Joe Pennucci has surpassed 100 career wins as a head coach. His coaching staff gave him a game ball from Saturday’s game after their on-field batting practice before Sunday’s game, commemorated with the final score and date of Pennucci’s 100th win. Pennucci’s coaching record stands at 101-74 (.577).

SWINGING AND SWEEPING

To start the 2022 season, ETSU’s offense was on full display posting 38 runs on 39 hits over a three-game stretch to sweep Northern Kentucky to open the season. The three-game sweep makes it three season-opening sweeps in the last four season (Iona in 2019, Toledo in 2020) and ten of the last 12 opening series won by ETSU.

TICKET INFORMATION

Season tickets, single-game tickets, and flex pack ticket options are all currently available at ETSUtickets.comor by calling 423-439-3878. 

For more information on Buccaneer baseball, visit ETSUBucs.com and click on the baseball page.