GREENVILLE, S.C. – The No. 7 seed UNC Greensboro (UNCG) baseball team took down No. 6 seed ETSU Buccaneers, 6-5, then lost to No. 3 Samford, 13-1, on Wedneday at Fluor Field in The Southern Conference (SoCon) Baseball Tournament. The play-in win against ETSU was the first win in the SoCon Tournament since 2023 against No. 2 Mercer, 9-5.
GAME 1: UNCG 6 – ETSU 5
The Spartans struck early with a Luke Holland solo shot, his fourth of the season, on the first pitch of the game to give UNCG the lead, 1-0. The offense continued to roll in the second frame as Jake Barbour and Holland each brought home a run to push the cushion to 3-0. The Buccaneers responded with four runs off starter Noah Chapman in the bottom half of the second, 4-3.
After a quiet third and fourth innings, UNCG battled back with an RBI double from Luke Jenkins, then an RBI single from Barbour to retake the lead, 5-4. ETSU responded with a run in the bottom half of the fifth, 5-5. Chapman was relieved in the fifth by Cannon Lee, who pitched the remaining four and two thirds innings with two hits allowed, no runs earned and a career-high eight strikeouts. With the ETSU offense halted by Lee, the Spartans clawed ahead with an RBI from All-SoCon Second teamer Jacob Budzik to pull ahead 6-5. Lee was given the ninth to close out and after giving up a leadoff triple, secured the win with back-to-back strikeouts and a pop out to end the game, 6-5.
PITCHING RECORDS:
Cannon Lee: W, 2-1
Scratton Scott: L, 3-6
GAME 2: UNCG 1 – Samford 13
The Samford offense opened the scoring with three runs in the bottom of the first, then two runs in the second to quickly go up 5-0. The Bulldogs tacked on another run in the bottom of the third to extend the advantage to 6-0. After a quiet fourth frame, UNCG opened the fifth inning with an RBI single from Ethan Brittain to cut the lead down, 6-1. However, the Bulldogs strung together seven runs in the bottom half of the fifth to pull ahead, 13-1. After no action in the sixth inning, the Spartans were down to the last three outs. The Bulldogs proceeded to retire UNCG one-two-three to end the game, 13-1.
PITCHING RECORDS:
Joseph Lee: W, 2-1
Mayson Dear: L, 3-6
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UP NEXT
UNCG will continue SoCon Tournament action tomorrow as they play the loser of the No. 2 seed Western Carolina and No. 3 seed Samford at 7:30 p.m.
