FT. MYERS, Fla. (May 10, 2014) – The road and offensive woes continue to pile up for the ETSU baseball team.
The Bucs dropped their sixth straight road game as Florida Gulf Coast scored six runs in the second inning and clinched the series win by defeating the Blue and Gold, 8-0, on Saturday afternoon at Swanson Stadium.
Overall, ETSU has lost 14 of its 19 games played away from Thomas Stadium – including nine of 10 in conference play – while also being held scoreless for the last 21 innings.
ETSU put a runner on in seven of the nine innings, but the Blue and Gold – who finally had a runner reach third base for the first time of the series with two outs in the ninth inning – left eight Buccaneers stranded. Jeremy Taylor (Fayetteville, Ga.) and Zach Thompson (Johnson City, Tenn.) had extra base-hits for the Bucs as they both doubled, while the Bucs were out-hit, 10-8.
The Blue and Gold dropped to 24-25, 11-11 in A-Sun play, while FGCU – who is hosting the A-Sun Tournament – moved to 34-18, 17-6.
Both teams were held scoreless in the first inning, but the Eagles landed the devastating blow by plating six runs on five hits in the bottom of the second to take a 6-0 lead. Six of the first seven FGCU hitters reached to start the inning, while the Eagles picked up a two-run scoring double by Alex Diaz, and Gage Morey and Jake Noll followed with RBI singles. From there, Michael Suchy drove in Morey with an RBI groundout to first and Noll scored on a two-out fielding error by Chris Riopedre (Miami, Fla.) at short.
Nesselt regrouped after the big inning as he held FGCU scoreless for the final three frames before the Bucs turned the ball over to Josh Jacques (Rollinsford, N.H.) in the sixth.
Unfortunately, ETSU’s offense remained stagnant as the Blue and Gold couldn’t give Nesselt any support and the Eagles scratched across two runs in the sixth to see their lead soar to, 8-0.
Freshman right-hander Austin Hutchison (Jefferson County, Tenn.) worked two scoreless innings in the seventh and eighth, but the Bucs were shutout for the second straight game, marking the first time in two years ETSU has been blanked in consecutive outings.
Nesselt suffered the loss (6-5) after allowing six runs (five earned) on seven hits in five innings of work. The right-hander also struck out five and walked three. Meanwhile, Brady Anderson tossed seven innings of seven-hit ball to pick up the win. Anderson fanned four and improved to 4-2, while Mario Leon and Brad Mabozzetta each tossed one inning of work to complete the shutout.
The Bucs look to salvage a win in the series finale on Sunday as first pitch is slated for noon. ETSU sends freshman left-hander Jamin McCann (Kingsport, Tenn.) to the hill and the Eagles counter with junior right-hander Jack English.
Release and photo courtesy of ETSU Sports Information
