Mercer University
Jacksonville
Mercer Drops Heartbreaker to Jacksonville, 7-6
4/8/2011 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
MACON, Ga. – Despite a pair of home runs by senior John Moreland, three errors which led to six unearned runs is what ultimately cost the Mercer baseball team in a 7-6 loss to Jacksonville on Friday evening at Claude Smith Field.
Mercer (22-11, 8-7 A-Sun) now falls to 0-6 in one-run games this season, while Jacksonville (18-12, 8-5 A-Sun) improved to 3-2 in one-run affairs.
The first four innings of the game couldn't have been scripted any better for the Bears, thanks in large part to Moreland. The Marietta, Ga. native stroked a solo home run in the second and crushed a two-run in the fourth to put Mercer out in front by a 6-1 margin.
The lead would not last however, thanks to some poor defense by the Bears. Mercer, who came into tonight's game leading the Atlantic Sun Conference with a .971 fielding percentage, committed an error in the fifth behind starter Brandon Love that would come back to haunt them. With the score 6-2, an error by shortstop Evan Boyd loaded the based with two outs and brought sophomore Dan Gulbransen up to the dish. Gulbransen made the mistake a costly one when he took a pitch from Love and crushed it over the right field wall for a grand slam home run to tie the game up, at 6-6.
The score remained deadlocked at 6-6 until the top of the seventh, when once again mistakes in the field by the Bears came back to bite them. Senior reliever Russell Moses started the frame with a strikeout of JU batter Jonathan Murphy, but Murphy was still able to reach first base thanks to a passed ball. Murphy proceeded to score the eventual winning run two batters later on an RBI single by junior Kevin Lehane to make the score 7-6.
The Orange and Black put together one last ditch rally in the bottom of the ninth, but junior Billy Burns flew out to right field with the bases loaded to end the game.
Moreland finished 3-for-4 with three RBI and two runs scored while senior Joe Winker collected three hits of his own and an RBI in the loss.
Freshman Adam Maxon picked up the win for Jacksonville after throwing 3.2 innings of scoreless relief.
Mercer continues its three-game series with Jacksonville on Saturday evening at 6 p.m. at Claude Smith Field.
