Gent, Bucs roll past Mercer on Sunday to claim weekend series
JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (WJHL) – In the first two games of the weekend series with the Bears, ETSU baseball had to play catch-up. But, on Sunday, the Blue and Gold never trailed in an 11-4 victory.
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Senior infielder Noah Gent was dominant at the dish, hitting 4-for-5 with 4 RBI – coming up just a home run shy of the cycle.
He drove home the first two runs for ETSU on the afternoon – an RBI single in the first inning and then an RBI triple in the fourth.
Jackson Green and Ryan McCarthy also drove in runs in the frame, pushing the lead to 4-0.
With one swing of the bat, Mercer’s Parker Lester made it a ball game, smashing a three-run homer to left-center field.
The Bucs, however, responded with five runs of their own in the sixth to make it 9-3.
Tommy Barth’s homer in the seventh inning and another RBI from Green was more than enough to secure the win.
Barth, Green and McCarthy all drove home a pair of runs, while Cody Miller tallied three hits and scored twice.
The series victory is the Bucs’ first over Mercer since May 2014.
“Those guys do a good job and it’s a really good program,” ETSU head coach Joe Pennucci said. “They happen to be in our league, but they’ve had our number the last couple of years and it was good to get one this weekend, for sure.”
“It feels great,” Gent said of the win. “You know, every single game matters at this point, you know. Our pitchers, they did phenomenal all weekend – they kept us in the game.”
Michael Harpster (5-1) picked up the win on the mound, pitching 5.1 innings and scattering seven hits and three runs.
ETSU (20-10, 5-4 SoCon) makes a quick trip over to Radford on Tuesday at 5 p.m., before making the drive down to Samford for a weekend set.
First pitch against the Bulldogs on Friday slated for 6 p.m.
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