Johnson City Times

Despite taking a two-run lead into the ninth inning, the ETSU baseball team couldn’t finish things off as Toledo plated four runs in the frame and rallied for a 6-4 victory on Saturday afternoon at Thomas Stadium. 

Tommy Barth (Brecksville, Ohio) led the Bucs at the plate and Austin Emener (Macon, Ga.) had a stellar debut in the Blue & Gold on the mound. Barth went 3-for-5 with a double, run scored and an RBI, while Emener tossed four innings of no-hit ball with eight strikeouts, including seven straight between the sixth and eighth frames. Joining Barth with multi-hit games were Cameron Sisneros (Littleton, Colo.) and Garett Wallace (Sanford, Fla.). The Buccaneer duo each tallied two hits, while Sisneros drove in two runs. 

Toledo struck first by scratching across a pair runs in the top of the first, but the Bucs quickly responded and tied the game at two in the bottom half of the inning. Barth led off the inning with a single to short, while Ashton King (Knoxville, Tenn.) and Noah Gent (Corryton, Tenn.) both worked walks to load the bases. From there, Sisneros singled up the middle to score both Barth and King. 

ETSU then took its first lead of the day by scoring two runs in the bottom of the fourth to go ahead, 4-2. Wallace led the inning off with a double down the left field line and later scored on Leo Jiminian’s (Saint-Lo, France) RBI ground out to second. Barth capped off the scoring when his double to left scored Ryan Enos (Oriskany, N.Y.) – who reached earlier on a single to left. 

With the Bucs grabbing momentum, Emener entered out of the bullpen to begin the fifth inning. After a rocky start where he walked the first two Toledo hitters, the Buccaneer southpaw zoned in and was untouchable. 

The transfer from North Alabama worked the four scoreless frames with eight strikeouts to keep the two-run lead intact. In fact, Emener struck out seven straight Rocket batters starting with one out in the sixth inning and running through the first out of the eighth inning. Emener had the rare four-strikeout frame in the seventh as he fanned Mason Sykes but he reached on a wild pitch. 

Unfortunately, Emener’s day was done after recording the final out of the eighth inning where he totaled 71 pitches (43 strikes). 

The Bucs, who left runners stranded in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings, were haunted by not finding the timely hit as Toledo’s bats came alive in the ninth. 

Nathan Hickman (Lenoir City, Tenn.) trotted out to try and shut the door on the Rockets, but Toledo greeted him rudely as the Buccaneer right-hander surrendered four runs on three hits and one walk. Garret Pike gave Toledo the lead for good when he sent one over the right field wall, putting the Rockets up, 5-4. For extra measure, Toledo tacked on one final run on an RBI single by Owen Jackson. 

Toledo’s Camryn Szynski tossed recorded the final three outs in the bottom ninth to secure the save. 

Andrew Ronne (Athens, Tenn.) got the start for the Bucs and he picked up a no-decision after allowing two runs on three hits in four innings of work. Ronne walked four and struck out three. 

 

TEAM RECORDS

ETSU – 1-1

Toledo – 1-1 

 

PITCHERS OF RECORD 

Win – Kyle Music (1-0)

Loss – Nathan Hickman (0-1)

Save – Camryn Szynski (1) 

Original source can be found here