Mercer University
Radford
Late Inning Surge Lifts Baseball Past Radford, 8-7
2/20/2016 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
MACON, Ga. – The Mercer University baseball team scored all eight of its runs in the final four innings to rally for an 8-7 triumph over Radford on Saturday afternoon at Claude Smith Field.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Radford broke up a pitcher's duel in the top of the fourth, doing all of its damage with two outs to jump out to a 4-0 advantage.
However, Mercer answered in the bottom of the fifth, pulling within one, 4-3, following a RBI hit by Danny Edgeworth and a two-run single from Kyle Lewis. The two teams traded runs in the sixth, before the Bears scored four straight runs over the next two frames to grab their first lead of the game on Jose Hernandez's solo home run in the eighth.
Radford pulled within a run in the top of the ninth and continued to threaten with runners on the corners, but Austin Lord got the final out to put the Bears in position for an opening weekend sweep.
KEY TO THE GAME
The Bears' offense once again turned it on late, as all eight of the team's run came during the final four frames of play. Mercer was hitless through the first four innings, but racked up 11 hits from that point on including four extra-base hits during that time.
PLAYER OF THE GAME
Edgeworth broke through with a big game on Saturday, picking up a hit in each of his final three at-bats. The junior helped key the rally with two RBIs down the stretch, while also scoring a run on the afternoon. He now has 21 career multiple-hit games and 12 contests with multiple RBIs.
COACH GIBSON'S TAKE
"I'm really proud of our guys for turning it on late offensively to beat a good arm. We are much deeper this year and are able to bring in a guy off the bench like Jose Hernandez, who hit a ball out of the park. That's a luxury that most teams don't have."
"Defensively we were better, outside of one mix-up in the outfield late in the game. (Connor) Herd was really good, just had got in trouble in his last inning before we had to go to the bullpen. However, our bullpen had another strong day to give us a chance to come back and win the game."
MERCER NOTABLES
- The Bears are now 2-0 in their all-time series with Radford, while moving to 63-52 all-time against Big South opponents.
- The Orange and Black, which reached double-figure hits 31 times last season, recorded their first double-digit hit performance with 11 on the day.
- The Bears drew six walks on the afternoon and now have 15 bases on balls this season.
- Starter Connor Herd opened the game with three straight scoreless innings before being tagged with all four runs in the fourth.
- Freshman Austin Cox gave the Bears four strong innings out of the bullpen to pick up the victory in his collegiate debut, giving up two runs on three hits.
- Lord recorded the final two outs of the game to notching the first save of his career.
- Ryan Hagan had his second straight multiple-hit performance while topping all players with three runs scored.
- Lewis drove in a game-high three runs for his 20th career multiple-RBI effort.
- Hernandez's solo home run in the eighth is the third of his career.
- Ware had his 19th career multiple-hit game, while pushing his team-leading RBI total to four on the year.
RECORDS UPDATE
Mercer improves to 2-0 on the year, while the loss drops Radford to 0-2.
UP NEXT
The two teams will wrap up the three-game series tomorrow afternoon, as Mercer looks for the sweep of Radford with first pitch scheduled for 1 p.m.
