Mercer University
Florida A&M
Mercer Sweeps Mid-Week Doubleheader at Florida A&M
2/23/2011 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The Mercer baseball team used a combination of potent offense and shut down pitching to come away with a doubleheader sweep of Florida A&M on Wednesday evening at Moore-Kittles Field.
Mercer (5-2) coasted to a 19-6 win in game one and came away with a 5-1 victory over FAMU (2-4) in game two.
"I thought it was a great team effort by our guys tonight in that they played hard and rebounded well from last night," said head coach Craig Gibson. "Tonight was Florida A&M's home opener and their guys were really into it so it feels good to get two wins against a good club on the road."
Game one featured an offensive explosion for Mercer, who scored 18 runs over the first five innings of play.
Five Bears notched multi-hit efforts in the contest including senior Joe Winker who went three-for-three with a home run and four RBI and junior Jacob Tanis who went three-for-four with three RBI and a stolen base.
Junior Bronson Gagner got the start in game one and picked up the win after giving up six runs in five innings of work.
Game two featured a pitching duel between Mercer starter Russell Moses and Florida A&M's Heath Blackburn.
Both hurlers matched zeros over the first four innings until the Orange and Black finally broke through in the top of the fifth. Sophomore Evan Boyd walked with the bases loaded to bring home the first run of the game to put Mercer out in front, 1-0.
The Bears added some insurance runs in the sixth to make the score 5-0 thanks to a two-RBI single by Winker, an error and an RBI double by junior Jason Butts.
Moses did the rest from there, dominating the Rattlers by locating his fastball on both sides of the plate and mixing in a devastating curve ball.
The Mt. Olive, Ala. native finished with a complete game after allowing just one run on four hits while striking out a career-high 13 batters.
"Russell's performance tonight was the best road performance I have ever had during my tenure at Mercer," said Gibson. "He could have beaten anyone in the country tonight with the way he was throwing."
Mercer returns to the diamond when it hosts Alabama State for a three-game series starting on Friday night at 4 pm at Claude Smith Field.
