Freeman in national spotlight, leads Bucs past Nittany Lions

Coaches across the board will tell you to not pay to much attention to preseason hype and awards.

“It’s nice for those guys to get those accolades. It’s definitely well deserved,” said ETSU baseball head coach Tony Skole. “Don’t put too much stock in the preseason stuff, especially with college baseball you don’t know how things are going to turn out.”

If we’re talking in terms of stocks, everyone needs to be buy some shares in ETSU junior Clinton Freeman.

After a season opening series win against Penn State, Freeman was awarded the Louisville Slugger National Player of the Week on top of the Atlantic Sun Player of the Week.

Freeman led the Bucs, batting .800 with a double, triple and three home runs. He added five RBI’s with seven runs scored.

Freeman walked three times over the weekend, two of those being intentional.

On top of all his offensive production for ETSU, Freeman also pitched relief in two of the three games against the Nittany Lions.

During those two appearances he struck out three batters and earned his first save of the year in 1.1 innings.

With their most productive player from last year performing at mid-season levels, the Bucs were able to take the weekend series from Penn State 2-1, losing on opening day but winning the Saturday and Sunday games to start the season 2-1.

Junior pitcher Jared Burton was handed the loss for game one after giving up three runs in 1.1 innings of work for the Bucs on Friday. Griffin Krieg and Jimmy Nesselt started for ETSU on Saturday and Sunday respectively.

Both underclassmen, Krieg a freshman and Nesselt a sophomore, got their first wins of the year, pitching a combined 12 innings in the two games and striking out eight batters collectively.

The Bucs return to Thomas Stadium this weekend to face Seton Hall in another three-game series.