Baseball Falls to Georgia in Extra Innings, 7-6

Wednesday, February 24

Macon, Ga.

5 pm

Mercer University

3-1

Georgia

3-1

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Georgia	0	0	2	0	1	0	0	1	2	1	7	9	3
Mercer	3	1	1	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	6	9	2

Baseball Falls to Georgia in Extra Innings, 7-6

2/24/2016 7:30:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

MACON, Ga. – The Mercer University baseball team dropped a heartbreaker to Georgia, 7-6, in extra innings at Claude Smith Field on Wednesday night.

HOW IT HAPPENED
Mercer jumped out to an early 4-0 lead, as Jose Hernandez blasted a three-run shot in the first before Trey Truitt crossed the plate on a wild pitch in the second. Georgia answered with two runs in the third, but the Bears responded with a run in the home half on Truitt's RBI single to right for a 5-2 advantage after three innings of play.

The two teams traded solo home runs in the middle frames, as Georgia's Skyler Weber pulled the Bulldogs within two with his blast in the fifth. However, Kyle Lewis answered for the Bears in the sixth, lifting his first home run of the season over the wall in left field to hand Mercer a 6-3 advantage.

Georgia smacked its second home run of the game in the top of the eighth, as Michael Curry's long ball made it a 6-4 contest. The Bulldogs kept the rally going in the ninth, taking advantage of a Mercer error to plate two runs and send the game into extra innings. Georgia took its first lead of the game in the top of the 10th, as Logan Moody drove in what would be the game-winning run with a sacrifice fly.

KEY TO THE GAME
The Bears' offense drew a season-high 11 walks and tallied nine hits in the contest to consistently put runners on base, however, it was runners left on base that plagued them. Mercer stranded 16 runners in the contest, including three key runners in the bottom of the ninth.

PLAYER OF THE GAME
Austin Lord gave the Bears a strong outing out of the bullpen, giving up just one run on two hits in 4.2 innings on the mound. The junior lefty retired 13 of the 16 batters he faced including two stretches of six-straight batters.

COACH GIBSON'S TAKE
"I thought Conrad (Cornell) gave us a good start and Austin (Lord) followed him up with some great innings. However, offensively we left 16 runners on and defensively made two big errors, so we just didn't play well enough tonight to win. It is hard to get a win against a good club when you make those mistakes, but we'll regroup and be ready for Xavier this weekend. Hats off to Georgia, they played well in a tough environment but I'm disappointed we didn't play better."

MERCER NOTABLES

The Bears saw their three-game winning streak against Georgia come to an end, as the loss dropped them to 24-89-1 in the all-time series with the Bulldogs.

Mercer's 11 walks are a season-high and the most the program has had since drawing 12 in a victory over Northern Kentucky during the 2014 campaign. Eight players drew a walk in the contest, including a team-high two from Lewis, Matt Meeder and Jackson Ware.

The Orange and Black fell just short of their second double-digit hit performance of the year, finishing with nine on the night.

Conrad Cornell gave up two runs, one earned, on three hits over two innings of work in his first collegiate start.

Connor Herd was tagged with the loss, after surrendering a lead-off walk in the 10th.

Lewis had his third multiple-hit performance of the year, including the 20th home run of his career.

Howard Joe matched Lewis with a team-high two hits, recording his 18th multiple-hit performance of his career.

Hernandez drove in a career-high three runs with all three of those coming on one swing, his third homer of the year.

RECORDS UPDATE
Mercer slides to 3-1 with its first loss of the season, while Georgia improves to 3-1 on the year.

UP NEXT
The Bears return to Claude Smith Field this weekend, as they welcome Xavier to town for a three-game series that kicks off on Friday at 4 p.m.