Mercer University
Samford
Mercer Baseball Drops Regular-Season Finale to Samford
5/16/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
MACON, Ga. – The Mercer University baseball team fell to Samford, 17-7, in the 2015 regular season finale on Saturday night at Claude Smith Field.
Mercer (31-21, 16-7 SoCon) reached double-figure hits (11) for the second time this series and the ninth time in its last 11 contests. The Bears, who secured the outright regular season title and the No. 1 seed in the Southern Conference Baseball Championship presented by Mountain Shore Properties with Friday night's win, were led by Danny Edgeworth, Jose Hernandez and Jackson Ware with two hits apiece.
Samford led from the start, exploding out of the gate with a huge first inning. The Bulldogs had six of their first seven batters reach base in the frame en route to an early 6-0 lead.
Mercer cut the deficit to four, 6-2, with a pair of runs in the home half of the inning. Devin Bonin launched his 10th home run of the season, a solo shot to right field, for the Bears' first run of the game, before Ware drove in a run with the team's fourth straight hit of the inning.
However, the Bulldogs' bats continued to roll in the second inning, as the nation's leading team in home runs blasted three long balls in the frame to push their lead to 10-2. Samford added another run in the fifth on Alex Lee's RBI, before Greene's solo shot made it a 12-2 game after six frames.
The Bulldogs tacked on five more runs in the eighth inning to push their lead to 17-2 thanks to a season-high 22 hits.
Mercer fought back with five runs of its own in the bottom half of the frame to trim Samford's lead to 17-7. Nate Moorhouse started the rally with a RBI double down the right field line, before Hernandez's single through the left side scored Ware. Collin Snider drove in the third run of the inning and would later score along with Howard Joe on Matt Meeder's two-run triple.
After Ben Lumsden struck out the side in the top of the ninth, Steven Taylor tried to start another rally with a lead-off walk off of the Bulldogs' all-conference closer Andres Gracia. However, Gracia rebounded with a pair of strikeouts of his own to close out the win for Samford.
Mercer opens its inaugural Southern Conference Championship on Wednesday, May 20, as it will play the winner of the Citadel/ETSU game at Riley Park in Charleston. First pitch is scheduled for 5 p.m. Stay tuned to MercerBears.com for more details on the game.
