GREENVILLE, S.C. – A trio of four-run innings fueled the No. 5 Wofford baseball team as the Terriers outlasted the No. 3 ETSU Buccaneers in a 13-10 shootout to advance the championship round of the 2024 Southern Conference Championship presented by Holston Gases. The Terriers improve to 39-18 as the Bucs drop to 36-20 with their season coming to a close.
 
This marks the third-straight season that Wofford will appear in the championship round of the tournament.
 
The Terriers needed just two arms to secure the victory. Mike Eggert (9-3) earned the win with 5.2 innings of work. He allowed seven runs on 10 hits with three walks while striking out four. Alec Bouchard (5) notched the save after polishing off the final 3.1 innings. He surrendered three runs on four hits with two walks while punching out five hitters.
 
"I was just trying to go as far as I could and give my guys the best chance they could possibly have to win," said Eggert of his start.
 
ETSU starter Nathan Hickman (3-1) was tagged with the loss after giving up seven runs on seven hits in 3.0 innings.
 
The Terrier offense put forth 16 hits in the contest with five players notching multi-hit games. Brice Martinez and Lucas Manning each notched three hits and an RBI. Marshall Toole, David Wiley and Jack Renwick all recorded two hits. Toole drove in one run with Wiley and Renwick each plating three. Dixon Black tallied two RBI with Daniel Jackson and Tyler Hare each picking up one.
 
"It's just guys doing their one-ninth and trying to get it to the next guy and just saying, 'If we're going to go down, we're going to go down fighting, scratching, clawing, doing whatever (it takes),'" said head coach J.J. Edwards of the offense's success. "It was just nine guys playing all out."
 
Jackson stretched his on-base streak to 45 games. Black and Renwick both clubbed long balls in the contest with Renwick's traveling a whopping 432 feet. Hare lifted a sacrifice fly to mark the 36^th by the team this season, a new program record for a campaign. Toole has lifted his hit total to 88 this season, and he needs just one more base knock to tie the program's single-season record. With a sacrifice bunt in the contest, Renwick is now one shy of matching the SoCon's career record of 53.
 
"I was seeing the ball well, and I think quite a few other guys were seeing the ball well," said Lucas Manning of the team's offensive explosion. "We knew ETSU was a great offensive team, one of the best offensive teams in the country, and we knew we had to come with the juice today."
 
Wofford wasted no time putting a run on the board. Marshall Toole opened the game with an automatic double, and he moved over to third with a groundout. From there, he scurried home when Brice Martinez blooped a single into right field. The Terriers were quickly in front 1-0.
 
ETSU tied the contest in the bottom of the frame with a sacrifice fly, making the score 1-1.
 
The Terriers responded with four runs in the top of the second. Back-to-back singles set up runners on the corners for Jack Renwick, who put down a bunt in front of the plate. The throw went home and sailed away, allowed Renwick to reach and the run to score. The error moved a runner to third, from which he would score on Marshall Toole's RBI groundout. Dixon Black then clobbered a ball to straightaway center, launching a two-run homer 411 feet to push the Terrier advantage to 5-1.
 
The Buccaneers added another sacrifice fly in the bottom of the second to pull the score to 5-2.
 
With a three-run homer in the bottom of the third, ETSU pulled the game level once more at 5-5.
 
But the Terriers were prompt to respond jump back in front. Andrew Mannelly was hit by a pitch to open the top of the fourth, and Renwick followed by launching a two-run homer to left center that measured at a whopping 432 feet and bounced off an umbrella on an apartment balcony beyond the outfield wall. Another hit batter and a double placed two on for David Wiley, who laced a single through the left side to push both runners home and make the Wofford lead 9-5.
 
After Mike Eggert held the Bucs scoreless for two-straight frames, the Terriers piled on four more runs in the top of the sixth. With two runners on, Daniel Jackson delivered an RBI single to push across one run. Wiley then ripped a double into left center that added another rally, and Tyler Hare lifted a sacrifice fly for one more run. Lucas Manning pushed another across with his RBI single, extending the Terrier advantage to 13-5.
 
In the bottom of the sixth, ETSU tacked on a pair in an attempt to keep pace. An RBI single was followed by a run-scoring triple to shave the margin to 13-7.
 
The Bucs kept battling with two more in the eighth. An RBI groundout added a run for ETSU, and an RBI single plated a second. The margin slimmed to 13-9 entering the ninth.
 
ETSU continued its fight to come back with an RBI single in the bottom of the ninth, but Alec Bouchard held firm on the bump to close out the game and send the Terriers back to the title tilt with a 13-10 triumph.
 
Wofford will rematch No. 2 Samford tomorrow at noon. Coming out of the losers' bracket, the Terriers will need to defeat the Bulldogs twice tomorrow to claim the championship. A Wofford victory in game one would force the winner-take-all if necessary contest, which would begin approximately 45 minutes after game one.