CHARLESTON, S.C. - The Citadel slammed four home runs for the second straight day, including a three-run shot by Drew Ellis that capped a six-run sixth inning, giving the Bulldogs a 12-8 win over East Tennessee State to clinch the first series between the teams as Southern Conference rivals since 2005.

The Bulldogs (22-26, 7-13 SoCon) have won consecutive conference series and four of their last five games after taking two of three at Samford last weekend. The Buccaneers dropped to 19-31 and 6-14 in the SoCon.

The series concludes with an 11 a.m. game on Sunday, the first pitch having been moved up two hours due to the threat of rain later in the day. The members of the 2015 senior class will be recognized in a pregame ceremony.

Austin Mapes led off the bottom of the first by taking the first pitch from Jimmy Nesselt over the wall in left center for his second leadoff home run in the past three games. Connor Walsh hit a two-run homer in the fifth, Mike Deese launched a pinch hit shot an inning later, and Ellis finished off the decisive sixth with his drive to right, giving the Bulldogs a 10-5 lead.

Walsh and Ellis both had two home runs in the series opener on Friday. Ellis leads The Citadel with nine home runs on the season, Walsh has seven to go along with a team-leading 49 RBI and Mapes has left the yard six times including three in the past four games.

ETSU scored three times in the fourth including a two-run single by Chris Cook to take a 5-2 lead before the Bulldogs ran off 10 unanswered runs. Walsh began the rally with his homer in the fifth, and Deese tied it at five with a leadoff shot in the sixth.

Mapes had a sacrifice fly to put The Citadel in front and Stephen Windham made it 7-5 with an RBI single before Ellis jumped on an 0-2 pitch from reliever Josh Jacques. Mapes drove in his third and fourth runs of the game an inning later with a two-run single, insurance runs that proved important when the Bucs scored three in the ninth.

Kevin Connell earned the win in relief, blanking ETSU from the sixth through eighth innings with four strikeouts. He ran into trouble in the ninth, and Skylar Hunter was able to strike out Zach Thompson with two on to finish off the win.