Mountaineers avenge February loss in ETSU’s final midweek road game

BOONE, N.C. (May 2, 2023) – The ETSU baseball team was unable to complete the season sweep of nearby rival Appalachian State on a cold and breezy Tuesday evening in Boone, as the Mountaineers defeated the Bucs by a 14-6 final.

Back in February, ETSU defeated App State by a 5-0 final in Johnson City. Playing the May rematch in similar cold weather, the Mountaineers avenged that loss in the return trip with a late surge in the final three innings.

The Mountaineers took advantage of a pair of defensive miscues and jumped to a 6-0 lead in the second inning, but ETSU rose to the challenge the next half inning to cut the App State lead in half. A leadoff single by Skyler Cannady (Nicholasville, Ky.) started a three-run inning, eventually leading to a two-RBI single by Ashton King (Knoxville, Tenn.) and an infield RBI single by Tommy Barth (Brecksville, Ohio) down the third base line.

ETSU made it five unanswered runs in the fifth inning, adding a pair as King hit a sacrifice fly to score Garett Wallace (Sanford, Fla.) and Barth doubled in Cameron Sisneros (Littleton, Colo.) with a ball in the right-center gap. That one-run deficit was in danger of becoming more in the bottom half, but a 1-2-3 double play got ETSU out of a bases loaded jam to end the threat.

Unfortunately for the Bucs, the momentum shifted back in favor of the home team in the later innings with App State scoring eight runs over the next three innings. The Bucs got one back in the ninth inning as Sisneros drove home Jackson Green (Blackwood, N.J.) following a late double in his first at-bat of the game. App State got the final two outs after that.

ETSU used five pitchers on Tuesday and the five combined for 10 strikeouts. Owen Kovacs (Knoxville, Tenn.) led the staff with 3.0 innings with just one run allowed and three strikeouts. Andrew Ronne (Athens, Tenn.) pitched 1.1 scoreless innings before Kovacs entered.

PITCHERS OF RECORD

Win – Seth Whitley (1-0)

Loss – Derek McCarley (2-1)

Save – None

TEAM RECORDS

ETSU: 20-22

APP: 22-19

ON DECK

The Bucs will make their longest trip of the season this weekend as the Blue & Gold head to Oklahoma State. The series will begin on Friday, May 5 at 7 p.m. in Stillwater, Okla.

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