Mercer University
S.C. Upstate
Bears Swept by USC Upstate on Senior Day
4/16/2011 12:00:00 AM | Softball
MACON, Ga. – A day after sweeping ETSU at home, the Mercer softball team were swept themselves on Senior Day by the visiting USC Upstate Spartans, 3-1 and 5-2 on Saturday at Sikes Field.
The two losses push the Bears (23-19, 6-8 A-Sun)back under .500 in the Atlantic Sun Conference. With six games left in league play, Mercer will have to make a late push in order to secure one of six spots in the A-Sun tournament.
In game one, USC Upstate's senior pitcher Morgan Childers became the A-Sun's all-time wins leader as she recorded her 109th career win in the Spartans 3-1 victory. Then in game two, the Bears pitching staff were tagged for a season-high 13 hits in a 5-2 loss for just their fourth defeat at home this season.
Senior pitcher Jenni Holtz was one of six seniors that were honored prior to the start of game one and she was able to go the distance for her ninth complete game of the season. Holtz, allowed just three earned runs on seven hits, but unfortunately, she was matched up against Childers. Childers did one better, allowing just two hits in her shutout.
Holtz just could not get the run support she needed as Mercer mustered just one run on the strength of a streaking junior Kassie Bailey. Bailey, who extended her current hitting streak to seven games, roped her second-career home run in the bottom of the first inning of game one. During her current hitting streak, Bailey is batting .429 with nine hits, four RBI and a home run.
The Bears were hoping to salvage a split in game two by ran into another hot Upstate pitcher in Hannah Alexander. Alexander went four innings in game two giving up just one run on four hits and three strikeouts.
The Bears cut an early Spartans lead to 2-1 as Mercer plated a run in the fourth when sophomore Sarah Santana hit an RBI single to left field that scored a pinch-running Stephanie Canara from second. Santana was however caught trying to stretch the single into a double and ended the inning after Canara scored.
Both teams made a pitching change in the fifth as Childers came back in for the Spartans and Holtz re-entered for the Bears. With the lead down to just one Holtz was brought in to relieve fellow senior Kari Chambers.
After Chambers allowed a lead-off double in the top of the fifth, Holtz came in to see if she could bail the Bears out of a jam. Instead, Holtz gave up a two-run home run against the first batter she faced, Upstate's Lauren Quevedo and the Spartans extended their lead to 4-1.
Upstate then added another run in the sixth and the Bears chances to make a comeback seemed to be slipping away. That was until another senior tried to light a spark in the Bears' lineup. Allison Jones made good of her chance on senior day and made things interesting by nailing her first-career home run in the bottom of the seventh.
Jones' home run came with just one out in the seventh, but the Bears could not finish out the comeback as Childers made quick work of Mercer's next two batters to end the threat and the game.
Mercer will finish off their six-game home stand this Tuesday as in-state rival Georgia St. heads to town. The Panthers and Bears will get underway at 4 p.m. at Sikes Field.
