Barth records first four-hit game of his season 

WACO, Texas (April 2, 2022) – It took a three-run eighth inning to tie the second game of the weekend, but it wasn’t enough.

Baylor took game two of a three-game set at Baylor Ballpark 8-7, clinching the series against the Bucs. ETSU is now 2-4 in one-run games on the season, with only one of them coming in extra innings.

The afternoon started the same last night, with ETSU striking first in the first inning. After Ashton King (Knoxville, Tenn.) and Tommy Barth (Brecksville, Ohio) got aboard to start, a sacrifice fly from Bryce Hodge (Knoxville, Tenn.) started the afternoon as ETSU couldn’t do more damage with runners on first and second with one out.

It took the Bears one less inning to respond compared to last night but still managed to go up 5-1 after two innings, scoring three in the first and two in the second. All three runs counted as unearned after an error with two outs.

Barth wasn’t going to let the same script write itself from yesterday, blasting his second home run of the season just over the left-field wall to cut the lead to two. Barth becomes the 11^th Buccaneer with multiple home runs on the season. All three runs in the first three innings were scored with less than two outs.

Colby Stuart (Elon, N.C.) settled down following the first two innings, allowing just one baserunner in the final three innings. Stuart faced the minimum in each of them.

A one-run game into the seventh inning, the Bucs made it a one-run game in the seventh as King ripped one up the middle to score Logen Sutton (Knoxville, Tenn.), who roped his second double of the game. Barth added his first double of the game shortly after, but runners were left on second and third with two outs.

After adding a pair of insurance runs in the following frame, the Bucs weren’t going down lightly. Cam Norgren (Cary, N.C.) and Noah Webb (Kodak, Tenn.) led off the eighth with a single and double, respectively, to put ETSU in business early. David Beam (Knoxville, Tenn.) brought them both in on one swing, trimming the lead back down to one. Beam advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt, and Garett Wallace (Sanford, Fla.) added his team-leading 27^th RBI of the season to tie it.

Baylor iced the afternoon with a go-ahead sacrifice fly in the eighth inning and the Bucs stranded the tying run at third with two outs following a leadoff double from Barth.

Going into today, the Bucs were 12-0 when outhitting their opponent. The last time ETSU loss when outhitting their opponent was May 14 in a 6-5 loss against VMI on the road.

ETSU hit .308 with two-outs, and .444 with runners on compared to Baylor hitting just .200 and .278, respectively.

Pitchers of Record

• Win: Mason Marriott 2-0
• Loss: Nathanial Tate 1-3
• Save: N/A

Game Leaders

ETSU

• Barth | 4-for-5, HR, 2 2B, 2 RBI
• Sutton | 2-for-4, 2 2B, R
• King | 2-for-4, RBI, 2 R, BB
• Beam | 1-for-4, 2 RBI, R
• Tate | 2.0 IP, H, R, BB, 3 K, 35 P

BAY

• Nevin | 3-for-5, 2B, RBI, 2 R
• Wehsener | 1-for-4, HR, 4 RBI, BB
• Marriott | W, 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, 13 P

Notables

• Barth is the second Buccaneer to post a four-hit afternoon, the last since Jared Paladino (Levittown, N.Y.) torched Northern Kentucky for four hits and six RBIs.
• With a 2-for-4 afternoon, King extended his hitting streak to eight games, the longest by any ETSU player this season. Hodge didn’t extend his team-leading 11-game on-base streak, while Webb made it 10 consecutive games on base.
• Four of ETSU’s five doubles on the afternoon were recorded by two freshmen: Barth and Sutton.
• After today, the Bucs are 1-2 after being tied in the eighth. The Bucs also drop to 8-3 when scoring in the first inning and 15-3 when scoring first overall. Two of those losses have come this weekend.
• The Bucs tacked on a double-digit hit afternoon after their streak of six consecutive ended yesterday. ETSU also blasted a long ball offensively, Barth’s second home run of the season, after their streak of eight consecutive games with one ended yesterday as well.

Record Update

• ETSU: 17-7
• BAY: 15-11

Up Next

The Bucs look to salvage the series by taking a game tomorrow at Baylor Ballpark with first pitch set for 2:00 p.m. EST. The game will be streaming on Big 12 Now on ESPN+.

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