Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

ETSU hands the defending 

National Champions their first loss of 2025

KNOXVILLE – The ETSU baseball team shocked the college baseball world on Tuesday as it defeated No. 1 Tennessee in 10 innings by a score of 7-6. The victory, which boosts ETSU’s record to 16-4, is not only ETSU’s first against the Volunteers since 2019 but it also snapped Tennessee’s 22-game winning streak, and it was the first loss for the Volunteers in 2025.

 ETSU’s offense scored seven runs and totaled 10 hits against a pitching staff that came into the game as the national leader in team ERA. Cody Miller led the charge going 3-for-4 with two runs scored, two RBI, and a stolen base. Miller was also one of four Buccaneers to hit a home run in the landmark victory joining Jamie Palmese, Tristan Curless and Grant Gallagher. Curless and Palmese also finished the game with two hits each for the Bucs.

 The Buccaneer pitching staff was equally as impressive against one of the nation’s top offenses. Tennessee’s hitters had a team batting average of just .175 against the seven ETSU pitchers that saw action on Tuesday. Furthermore, ETSU’s staff did well in getting out of jams as they stranded 14 Tennessee runners in the win. Knoxville native Brady Frederick had the longest outing of 3.2 innings, while Andrew Cotten threw two shutout innings in the ninth and tenth to clinch the historic win for the Blue and Gold.

 Like it has several times this season, the Bucs scored first. A single from Miller was aided by a two-base Tennessee error to move him to third. Cooper Torres then took advantage of the miscue by the Volunteers and drove in Miller in with a single to give the Bucs an early 1-0 lead.

 Tennessee bounced back with a pair of unearned runs in the bottom half of the first inning. Suddenly playing from behind, the Bucs quickly tied the score at 2-2 with a solo home run by Curless in the top of the second. Curless has now homered against Virginia Tech, Georgia, and Tennessee this season.

 Another Buccaneer home run came in the third. Miller hit a line drive that cleared the wall down the left field line with a runner on to put the Bucs back in front, 4-2. A solo home run by Tennessee’s Gavin Kilen in the fifth and an RBI double from Hunter Ensley in the seventh knotted the score back at 4-4 entering the late innings.

 Ensley would strike again with a two-run double in the bottom of the eighth to put the pressure back on the Bucs. With just three outs to go and trailing by two, Curless got things started in the ninth with a single through the left side of the infield. Palmese then came up and hit an opposite field home run to tie the score yet again, 6-6. It was Palmese’s eighth home run of the season and his second in as many games he hit late to tie the game (Three-run home run in eighth inning vs. Longwood on Saturday).

 Cotten stranded two Tennessee baserunners in the bottom of the ninth to push the game to extra innings. After the Volunteers quickly retired the first two batters of the inning on strikeouts, Gallagher came up and hit a massive home run on a 3-2 count, his 12th of the season, to make the score 7-6 Bucs.

 Back-to-back flyouts began the bottom of the tenth inning but a single and a hit by pitch gave the Volunteers the tying and go-ahead runs on base with two outs. Tennessee sent up Chris Newstrom as a pinch hitter. Cotten and Newstrom battled in an at-bat for seven pitches before Cotten struck out Newstrom looking to finish off the historic win for ETSU.

 The Bucs will now turn their attention to SoCon play this weekend as they welcome Samford to Thomas Stadium for a three-game series. The three-game set will get underway at 5 p.m. on Friday.

For more information on Buccaneer baseball, visit ETSUBucs.com and click on the baseball tab.