2014 Mercer Baseball Season Recap
6/1/2014 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
MACON, Ga. – Despite falling just short of its ultimate goal of making its second-straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament, the Mercer baseball team still enjoyed a special 2014 season.
11th-year head coach Craig Gibson guided the Bears to a 38-17 overall record in 2014 and an 18-9 mark in Atlantic Sun Conference play, good for a second-place finish in the league.
Even with seeing its name in the first four out of the NCAA Tournament for the second time in four years, the Mercer baseball team still accomplished great things in 2014.
Season Highlights:
- Mercer won 38 or more games for the fifth-straight season, joining South Carolina, Florida State and Virginia as the only four programs in the country to accomplish the feat.
- Finished the season ranked 45th in the ratings percentage index (RPI) according to BoydsWorld.com and 46th according to NCAA.com and WarrenNolan.com.
- Finished with a 13-5 record against RPI top-100 squads this season including series sweeps of High Point (No. 62), Evansville (No. 77) and Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) champion Georgia Tech (No. 32).
- The Bears recorded their first win over a top-five team since downing No. 2 Miami in 2007 when they traveled down to Gainesville and picked up a 4-2 victory over No. 4 Florida.
- Following its win over the Gators, Mercer received its second national ranking in as many seasons when it was ranked No. 24 in the Baseball America Top-25 poll.
- Mercer went 24-4 at home in 2014, with its .857 home winning percentage ranking seventh-best in the nation. Since the start of the 2012 season, the Bears have compiled a 67-17 record at the friendly confines of Claude Smith Field.
- The Bears finished 2014 with the best record amongst in-state foes with its 6-2 mark better than Kennesaw State (8-4), Georgia Tech (7-5), Georgia State (4-5), Georgia Southern (3-4), Georgia (3-7) and Savannah State (1-5). Mercer is now 29-14 against schools in the state of Georgia dating back to the start of the 2011 season.
- Mercer started the season red-hot by winning its first nine games, breaking the previous program record of eight-straight set back in 1970.
- The Bears finished the season by qualifying for the Atlantic Sun Championship for the ninth-straight season, joining Stetson as the only other team in the conference to appear in every postseason tournament since 2006.
- Mercer ranked in the top-40 nationally in multiple statistical categories according to the NCAA Division I statistical rankings. Out of all the teams in the country, the Bears rank fourth in least amount of walks per nine innings (2.08), fifth in strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.27-to-1.0), 15th in home runs (42), tied for 20th in wins (38), 28th in slugging percentage (.412), 28th in fielding percentage (.975) and 38th in on-base percentage (.378).
- The Bears led the A-Sun with a 3.27 team ERA and in the process broke the school record for lowest ERA in season which was previously 3.32 set in 2012.
Individual Highlights:
- Two Mercer career records were broken in 2014 as senior catcher Austin Barrett now owns the record for most career put-outs with 1,297 while senior outfielder Derrick Workman is the new Mercer career hits leader with 272 base knocks.
- Workman finished his career in the Orange and Black ranking 22nd in A-Sun Conference history with 839 career at-bats and tied for 26th all-time with his 272 hits.
- Senior shortstop Michael Massi was the only player to topple a Mercer single-season record, with his 196 assists in 2014 breaking the previous mark of 187 set by Jeff Thompson in 1983.
- Workman started the season by being named one of just 30 finalists for the 2014 Senior Class Award.
- Mercer had a program record six players named as either first or second team A-Sun All-Conference selection, besting the previous mark of five set in 2011 and 2013. Massi, senior Sasha LaGarde and junior Eric Nyquist took home All-Conference first team honors while senior Nick Backlund and juniors Chesny Young and Dimitri Kourtis were named to the second team.
- Massi was named the A-Sun Conference Defensive Player of the Year while Workman was voted the A-Sun Conference Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
- Workman and Massi were just the third and fourth Mercer student-athletes in school history to be named Capital One Academic All-America first team members.
- Massi is still in the running for the Brooks Wallace Shortstop of the Year Award as he is one of just 16 finalists up for the honor.
