King doubles twice, second two-double game in last six outings

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (May 6, 2022) – Ashton King (Knoxville, Tenn.) and Tommy Barth (Brecksville, Ohio)provided the offense early, but the Bucs couldn’t get anything late.

Samford took game one of a three-game set in Birmingham 6-2 behind a double-digit hit afternoon that saw eight of their nine starters post a base hit. ETSU scored their two runs in the first four innings.

Barth, entering the weekend with a 17-game hit streak, extended it to 18 on a leadoff home run to left field, his sixth of the season, to get ETSU’s offense going. King, who ripped a leadoff double in the second inning, would bring in Garett Wallace (Sanford, Fla.) with his second double in as many at-bats. After three and a half innings, ETSU had a quick 2-0 lead.

Zach Kirby (Upland, Calif.), coming off a career-outing against a potent Mercer offense, didn’t allow a hit through the first three innings until Samford put up four hits and three runs in the fourth. Kirby induced five groundouts with just one ball reaching the outfield in those first three innings.

Samford would add insurance runs in the fifth, sixth, and eighth innings to build the four-run lead. The Bucs were able to get a runner on in four of the final five innings on offense but were unable to bring them around.

Batting .336 entering the weekend with runners in scoring position, the Bucs went 0-for-10 in such situations, just the fifth time all season going hitless in that situation.

Pitchers of Record

• Win: Jacob Cravey 2-3
• Loss: Zach Kirby 2-2
• Save: Alex Goff (2)

Game Leaders

ETSU

• King | 2-for-3, 2 2B, RBI, HBP
• Wallace | 2-for-4, R
• Barth | 1-for-4, HR
• Green | 1-for-2, 2 BB

SAM

• David | 3-for-3, HR, 2B, RBI, 3 R, BB
• Ledbetter | 1-for-4, HR
• Cravey | W, 6.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 9 K
• Goff | S, 3.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K

Notables

• With his first-inning leadoff home run, Barth extended his hitting streak to 18 games, longer than Paul Hoilman’s 17-game streak back in 2008. Barth’s leadoff home run was the second of the season by a Buccaneer, joining Ashton King (3/27/22 vs. George Washington).
• King, who had two doubles in his first two plate appearances, now has 20 doubles on the season, the most in a single season since 2018. King leads the conference in doubles and has 12 doubles in his last 11 games. King now has five two-double games on the season, four of which coming in this stretch of 11 games.
• Ryan McCarthy (Knoxville, Tenn.) hosed down his 10^th caught-stealing of the season in just 26 games played.
• The Bucs lost the first game of the series in back-to-back weekends for just the second time all season (Wagner & Winthrop, ETSU would win both of those series).
• The Bucs fall to 12-6 (4-2 in conference play) when scoring in the first inning, and 18-7 (3-2 in conference play) when scoring first.

Record Update

• ETSU: 25-16 (7-6 SoCon)
• SAM: 21-22 (8-5 SoCon)

Up Next

The Bucs look to even the series tomorrow afternoon with a 3:00 p.m. (EST) first pitch in Birmingham. The game will be streaming on ESPN+.

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