ETSU’s baseball team started their season opener this past weekend. They played Northern Kentucky University Friday, Feb. 18; Saturday, Feb. 19; and Sunday, Feb. 20.
ETSU’s team played opening weekend against Northern Kentucky, and this was the sixth consecutive year that ETSU baseball won its opening game.
The Bucs dominated on Friday, starting out the first inning with seven scores and ending game one 12-7.
Continuing the momentum into Saturday, the Bucs won game two 12-4.
The Bucs completed the sweep with a 14-3 win Sunday.
Junior Jared Paladino (Levittown, New York) had a great game Saturday, going four for five, two-run home runs and earning a career-high with six RBI’s. Paladino is a transfer from Monroe College in his first year with ETSU.
“I love all my teammates, the atmosphere is great, and I love to win,” said Paladino.
Five offensive players had a multi-hit night and handled the Norse comeback in the fourth inning well earning two runs after the opposing team’s three runs making the game score 4-3 before ETSU batting on inning number four.
“We’ve played well the first couple of days; the offense has done a really good job. I thought they did great today, they are really relentless. On the pitching side, we’ve done a good job of filling up the zone and not beating ourselves,” said assistant coach Jamie Pinzino. “Two days in a row, limiting our walks and our free bases and still getting some punch-outs in there, so I think we’ve played pretty good complimentary baseball over the last couple days.”
The team has some new transfer players and has opened strong on the opening weekend.
“Chemistry is always good when you’re undefeated. The fall has been great, the preseason has been great, I think we have a really good mix of guys. The key to any year is how you can handle things when you deal with adversity. I think we have the group that can fight through that stuff,” said Pinzino.
