Mercer University
Georgia St.
Mercer Completes Peach State Sweep with 9-6 Win over Georgia State
5/17/2011 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
MACON, Ga. – The Mercer baseball team continued its in-state dominance with a 9-6 win over Georgia State on Tuesday evening at Claude Smith Field.
With tonight's win, Mercer (34-17) has now defeated every Division I college baseball program in the state of Georgia (Georgia, Georgia Tech, Savannah State, Georgia State, Georgia Southern and Kennesaw State) at least once this season for the first time in program history.
The Bears are now 8-4 against in-state foes in 2011 after defeating Georgia State (35-18), who had already downed the Bears twice this season; a 14-5 loss in Macon on February 22, and a 9-4 loss in Atlanta on April 5.
Senior Russell Moses picked up the win for Mercer after working 3.2 innings of relief and allowing three earned runs on five hits to go along with four strikeouts.
In a game that featured four ties and three lead changes, both teams were tied at one in the bottom of the second until senior Joe Winker came up to bat. With two outs and runners on the corners, the Orlando, Fla. native crushed a two-RBI double off the wall in right-center field to give Mercer a 3-1 advantage.
The Bears lead was short lived, however, as both squads traded scores in the fourth and fifth to make the score 5-5 going into the sixth. Mercer re-took the lead for good thanks to a sacrifice fly by junior Jacob Tanis and an RBI groundout by senior Thomas Carroll to go up 7-5.
The Orange and Black put the game out of reach in the bottom of the seventh after sophomore Evan Boyd drilled a two-run home run, his second of the season, over the right field wall to make the score 9-5 in favor of the home team.
Senior J.T. Odom entered the game in the eighth and wiggled out of a bases loaded jam in the ninth to secure the win for the Bears.
Boyd finished 2-for-3 with three runs scored while Tanis also finished 2-for-3 with three RBI.
Mercer is back in action on Thursday night when it welcomes East Tennessee State into town for a three-game Atlantic Sun series to conclude its regular season schedule. The Bears need just one more conference win to clinch a spot in the A-Sun Championship for the sixth-straight season under head coach Craig Gibson. Game one of the three-game set is scheduled for 6 p.m. at Claude Smith Field.
