ETSU’s baseball battles back, but falls to Radford

Coming into the game on March 28 against Radford on the road, the Bucs record was 12-9 with a one-game winning streak.

However, the Bucs lost 4-3.

In the first inning, the Bucs went scoreless while Radford was able to get two points on the board. The runs came off a hit down the right field line resulting in a double to bring in one run, followed by a single to give Radford a 2-0 lead over the Bucs.

The Bucs got their first run in the second inning when Chris Cook (Kingsport, TN) hit to center field to bring in a run. With a lot of runners on base, the Bucs were not able to capitalize going into the third inning, down 2-1.

The third inning was scoreless for both teams with Radford still controlling the lead heading into the fourth. In the fourth, with runners in scoring position, the Bucs had a chance to tie the game but were not able to convert. The defense was able to keep Radford off the board as well for the third straight inning.

In the fifth inning, ETSU’s offense was still not able to get going as they struggled to find a rhythm with the very experienced and explosive offense that they have. That carried on until the eighth inning when the Bucs offense caught a spark.

Christian Bailey (Kingsport, TN) doubled down the right field line bringing in runner Aaron Maher (Brentwood, TN) to tie the game 2-2. Blake Rowlett (Clarksville, TN) reached on a fielder’s choice to shortstop allowing Bailey to score giving the Bucs their first lead at 3-2. The Bucs closed out the eighth inning with the lead with solid defense to keep Radford out of scoring position.

Heading into the ninth inning with a chance to add to their lead, the Bucs’ offense put themselves in the position to close out the game. With two runners on base, one on first and one on third, the Bucs did not execute. However, with the way their defense had locked down since the first inning, they had a reason to be confident. That’s until Radford’s Danny Hrbek hit a walk-off triple with two outs and two runners on base to lead to the defeat of the Bucs 4-3.

With this loss, the Bucs dropped their record to 12-10 on the season. ETSU’s issues for the game were the 10 runners on base, most in scoring position.

The Bucs look to get back on track with their start of the conference season game against University of North Carolina, Greensboro on March 31 at 6:30 p.m.