Mercer University
Furman
Baseball Remains Perfect in SoCon Play with 9-5 Defeat of Furman
3/27/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
GREENVILLE, S.C. – The Mercer University baseball team pushed its winning streak to six games, defeating Furman 9-5 in the opening game of its Southern Conference series at Latham Stadium on Friday night.
Mercer (17-11, 4-0 SoCon) eclipsed double-figure hits for the fifth time in its last six games, recording 11 in the series opener with five Bears tallying a pair on the night. Kyle Lewis pushed his hitting streak to 10 games with a 2-for-3 performance, while Charlie Madden and Jackson Ware combined for five RBIs to pace the Bears.
Eric Nyquist went six innings to start the game for Mercer, giving up five runs on seven hits with six strikeouts to improve to 4-1 on the season. Relievers Morgan Pittman and Mitchell Wade combined for two scoreless frames, before Ben Lumsden got the final three outs to hand head coach Craig Gibson his 375th career victory.
"It was a great way to start a SoCon road series," said Gibson. "Nyquist gave us six strong innings and our bullpen stepped up with Wade coming up in a tight spot and Lumsden and Pittman having good performances as well. Offensively, we left some guys on, but Madden and Ware had big two-out hits to help us win a Friday night game against a talented team."
Furman (11-13, 1-3 SoCon) jumped out to an early lead, taking advantage of a pair of infield hits to score the game's first run. The Paladins would tack on another score in the first inning on Ryan Morse's RBI double. Chris Ohmstede pushed Furman's lead to 4-0 in the second, driving in a pair of runs with a double in the left center gap.
The Bears got on the board in the third inning, putting together four straight two-out hits to ignite a rally. Madden highlighted the surge with his fifth home run of the season, a three-run blast to left center to trim the deficit to one, 4-3.
Mercer grabbed its first lead of the contest with a pair of runs in the fourth frame, as Ware scored the tying run on a wild pitch, before Danny Edgeworth plated Matt Meeder to hand the Bears a 5-4 advantage. Howard Joe pushed the lead to 6-4 in the next inning, crushing a 2-1 pitch over the left field wall for his third long ball of the year.
The Paladins pulled within one, 6-5, in the sixth thanks to back-to-back hits to start the inning, however, Nyquist stranded a runner 90 feet away to escape without further damage. Mercer carried that momentum to the seventh, taking advantage of a pair of walks to move out in front, 8-5, on Ware's two-run double down the left field line.
The Bears added another insurance run in the eighth on Devin Bonin's RBI single to eighth to close out the scoring in their 9-5 victory.
Mercer continues its three-game series with Furman tomorrow, March 28, with first pitch scheduled for 4 p.m. at Latham Stadium.
