Mendez powers ETSU to victory

BY BRIAN T. SMITH
BRISTOL HERALD COURIER

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. – East Tennessee State University senior Troy Mendez leaned back, rotated and delivered. His arms stretched out. His hips swiveled. And the bat he held swept through the strike zone and found the core of a baseball that soon soared through the air, lit up an ink-black sky and landed where all good and true home-run shots eventually land – over the fence.

“I got an advantage count and just took advantage of a pitch I was looking for,” said Mendez, whose sixth-inning grand slam propelled the Buccaneers to a 9-3 victory over the University of Tennessee
Volunteers on Tuesday evening in a non-conference contest at Cardinal Park before a crowd of 626.

Mendez went 3 for 5 with five RBIs, and his sixth-inning skyrocket gave ETSU an 8-2 lead.

Bucs (13-11) starting pitcher Chas Byrne took care of the rest. Byrne, a right-handed sophomore, shut down and dominated Tennessee (11-16). He threw 6 2/3 strong innings in a winning decision. Byrne struck out seven, while allowing four hits and one earned run.

“I felt good coming into this game,” Byrne said. “I just wanted to throw strikes and command the zone and I did. It felt real good to have a good start against these guys.”

Meanwhile, Mendez’s big night at the plate carried a Bucs offensive attack that racked up 10 hits – six for extra bases. Derek Trent went 2 for 4 with an RBI to aid ETSU, while five other players picked up at least one hit.

“Hitting’s a very contagious thing,” Mendez said.

ETSU’s victory marked the Bucs’ third-straight win over the Volunteers, and the Buccaneers’ sixth victory in their last seven contests.

“We really went through some growing pains at the beginning of the year. All of our guys seemed to be struggling at the same time,” Buccaneers coach Tony Skole said. “But they’ve gotten through it and they’re playing with some confidence.”

While ETSU has found a groove, the Vols have bottomed out.

UT dropped a three-game series to Southeastern Conference rival University of Georgia over the weekend. The Volunteers then lost sophomore first baseman Cody Hawn (.301 batting average, 11 home runs, 39 RBIs) to illness for at least a month, according to Tennessee coach Todd Raleigh.

“We had a tremendous blow today. We probably lost our best player,” Raleigh said.

Raleigh held a post-game meeting in left field with six other Vols for more than 20 minutes following Tennessee’s defeat.

Raleigh admitted his team was likely trying to make up for the absence of Hawn, as the Vols’ hitters put too much weight on their shoulders and missed early opportunities.

“Nobody’s going to feel sorry for us, but it’s just been unbelievable the stuff that’s happened to us,” Raleigh said. “It’s like a perfect storm. It does hurt. I didn’t know it, but [Hawn’s] got numbers better than [ex-Tennessee star] Todd Helton.”

The Volunteers recorded just four hits Tuesday and did not light up the scoreboard until the fifth inning.

Meanwhile, the Bucs hit Vols right-handed starter Danny Wiltz hard. Wiltz allowed six hits in three innings and gave up two earned runs. UT reliever Will Locante took the loss.

Mendez dealt the initial blow for ETSU, ripping a solo home run off Wiltz in the bottom of the first. Mendez reared back and laid into a waist-high pitch, sending the ball soaring on a straight line over the left-field fence and giving the Bucs a 1-0 lead.

ETSU’s Matthew Scruggs followed with an RBI triple in the second inning, making it 2-0 Buccaneers.

Meanwhile, the Volunteers struggled to hit anything solid off Byrne, as he mixed low fastballs with off-speed pitches that either sank or tailed away.

The Vols threatened in the fourth inning, placing runners on first and second with one out.

Byrne’s response? Lockdown.

He quickly struck out Tennessee’s Jeff Lockwood and Jarred Frazier, ending the inning and keeping the Volunteers off the board.

Byrne took a shutout into the fifth inning.

Then Tennessee sophomore Kentrail Davis came to the plate. Davis swung hard and true through an offering by Byrne, sending the ball over the left-field wall and scoring two.

Suddenly, it was 2-2. Byrne’s run was over. And the Vols were in it.

“I’ve been struggling lately,” Davis said. “But I just got a good pitch to hit and I put a good swing on it.”

But ETSU hammered back in the bottom of the fifth inning.

Bucs freshman Bo Reeder slammed a hanging fastball from Locante over the right-field fence, and East Tennessee State claimed a 3-2 lead.

Then Mendez took over.

“There’s a lot of UT fans around here,” said Byrne, who played high school ball at Science Hill. “It’s good to show them who’s the more dominant baseball team.”

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