Mercer University
East Tenn. St.
Baseball Sweeps ETSU with Thrilling 9-8 Victory
4/10/2016 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. – The Mercer University baseball team moved to 20 wins on the year, after completing the sweep of East Tennessee State with a 9-8 victory on Sunday afternoon at Thomas Stadium.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Mercer jumped out to an early lead thanks to five hits in the first inning. Ryan Hagan started the scoring with a two-run double, before Charlie Madden's RBI single pushed the Bears' lead to 3-0. The Orange and Black added another run in the third on Ben Upton's run-scoring triple, but ETSU would answer in the home half with a solo home run to trim Mercer's lead to 4-1.
The Bears added a run in the sixth, as Trey Truitt drove in Matt Meeder with a single in the gap for a 5-1 advantage. The Bucs responded in the bottom of the seventh with a pair of solo home runs to cut Mercer's lead in half, 5-3.
However, the Orange and Black came back in the top of the eighth with three runs, as they did all of their damage with two outs. Jose Hernandez jumpstarted the rally with a two-out double, before scoring on Danny Edgeworth's single up the middle. Hagan pushed the lead to 8-3 with a two-run single.
The Buccaneers stole the momentum in the bottom of the eighth, scoring five runs thanks to a game-tying grand slam from pinch hitter Caleb Longley. The late-inning fireworks continued in the top of the ninth though, as Adam Moore followed Jackson Ware's lead-off single with the game-winning RBI double to give Mercer a 9-8 lead.
ETSU threatened with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, putting runners on the corners before Austin Cox got a big flyout to record his second save of the year.
KEY TO THE GAME
After tallying four home runs through the first two games of the series, Mercer manufactured all of its runs in the series finale. The Bears had 10 different players record a hit on Sunday, while hitting .500 with runners in scoring position and advancing the runner in over 52 percent of their opportunities.
PLAYER OF THE GAME
Hagan came through in the clutch for the Bears in the series finale, finishing 2-for-4 at the plate with a team-leading four RBIs. The junior reached base a total of three times in the contest, while recording his team-leading 17th multiple hit game as well as his sixth multiple RBI contest of the season.
NOTABLES
- Mercer moves to 27-13 in the all-time series with ETSU, after sweeping the Bucs for the second straight year.
- The Orange and Black now have four weekend sweeps on the year and have won six of their eight weekend series this season.
- The Bears reached double-figure hits for the second straight game and the 16th time this season, finishing with 13 on the day.
- Coulter tossed a career-high 7.1 innings on Sunday, giving up four runs on eight hits with a pair of strikeouts.
- Lewis finished 2-for-4 at the plate to extend his on-base streak to a team-leading 33 games, while also pushing his season total of multiple-hit performances to 16. The junior also stole his fifth base of the season in the fifth.
- Upton collected an extra-base hit in each of his first two at-bats, notching a double in the first and his first career triple in the third. He now has five multiple-hit efforts in 2016.
- Edgeworth came through with his second multiple-hit outing of the weekend and ninth of the season, finishing 2-for-6 at the dish with a team-leading two runs.
RECORDS UPDATE
Mercer moves to 20-13 overall and 6-3 in the SoCon, while ETSU falls to 15-16 overall and 3-6 in league play.
UP NEXT
The Bears will be back in action on Tuesday, April 12, as they travel to Statesboro, Ga., to take on Georgia Southern. First pitch is set for 6 p.m.
