Baseball Clinches Series with 8-4 Win over Furman

Saturday, April 23

Macon, Ga.

2 pm

Mercer University

25-15, 10-4

Furman

15-24, 4-7

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Furman	0	0	1	2	0	1	0	0	0	4	4	0
Mercer	0	1	0	1	4	1	0	1	X	8	13	1

Baseball Clinches Series with 8-4 Win over Furman

4/23/2016 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

MACON, Ga. – The Mercer University baseball team clinched its Southern Conference series with Furman, recording an 8-4 victory on Saturday afternoon at Claude Smith Field on a star-studded day that featured Miss America 2016 Betty Cantrell and former major leaguer Vic Correll in attendance.

HOW IT HAPPENED
Mercer got on the board first, as Howard Joe hit a solo shot to left field to hand the Bears a 1-0 advantage. The Paladins tied the game in the third, taking advantage of a passed ball to knot the contest at 1-1. The Bears' miscues cost them again in the fourth, as Furman took advantage of an error to plate two runs for a 3-1 lead after leading off the inning with two free passes.

Danny Edgeworth gave Mercer its second solo home run of the day, as he crushed a ball into the right field parking lot to cut the deficit to one, 3-2. The Bears regained the lead in the fifth, as Matt Meeder's two-run double and RBIs from Kyle Lewis and Hunter Bening pushed them out in front, 6-3.

Furman got one run back in the top of the sixth on Andrew MacLatchie's sacrifice fly, but the Bears would answer with a sacrifice fly of their own as Trey Truitt drove in Jose Hernandez, who doubled to lead off the inning, for a 7-4 advantage. Mercer added an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth, as Jackson Ware drove in Hunter Bening with a sacrifice fly to deep center field for an 8-4 lead.

The run support was plenty for Nick Spear, who tossed the final six innings in relief to help the Bears clinch their eighth weekend series win of the year.

KEY TO THE GAME
Mercer came through when it matter on Saturday, as the Bears hit .308 with runners on base including an impressive .500 with runners in scoring position. On the flip side the Orange and Black held Furman to just four total hits on the afternoon, including just 1-for-17 hitting with runners on base. The four hits given up marks the fifth time this season that the Bears have limited an opponent to five or less hits in a game.

PLAYER OF THE GAME
Hernandez reached base in all four of his plate appearances, recording two singles and a double before drawing an intentional walk in the eighth. He finished with a team-high two runs in the contest, while notching his third multiple-hit effort this season.

COACH GIBSON'S TAKE
"I can't say enough about Nick Spear, he came in and gave us six great innings against good offensive club. Defensively we were sound and offensively we put some hits together. Howard Joe got us off to a good start and then Meeder and Jose (Hernandez) were really good. I'm really proud of Jose, he really stayed ready to play and you saw what we got from him today."

"We pitched well today and Nick really saved our bullpen this afternoon. We put more emphasis on the weekend, since they are conference games and they mean a lot. We want to come out to play again tomorrow and then get ready for a tough Western Carolina club next weekend."

NOTABLES

Mercer has now won 12 of the last 15 contests between the two programs, while improving to 17-5 in the all-time series with the Paladins.
The Orange and Black recorded 13 hits in the contest to reach double-figures for the 20th time this season.
The Bears pitching staff recorded 12 strikeouts in the contest, the second time this series and the 13th time this season that they have reached double digits.
Spear picked up his second win of the week to improve to 3-1 on the year, after limiting Furman to just one run on three hits in his six innings of work. The freshman struck out a career-high eight batters in the contest.
Connor Herd gave up just one hit in his eighth start of the year, surrendering three runs, one earned, in three innings with four strikeouts.
Meeder had a hit in each of his first three at-bats, notching a pair of singles and a two-run double to stretch his hitting streak to a team-high 10 games. He now has nine multiple-hit performances and four multiple contests with two or more RBIs.
Truitt's sacrifice fly in the sixth gave him 30 RBIs on the season, as he becomes the fourth Bear to reach the mark in 2016.
Ryan Hagan collected two hits in his four at-bats to push his number of multiple-hit efforts to 19 on the year.
Bening finished 2-for-3 at the plate for his ninth multiple-hit contest.

RECORDS UPDATE
Mercer moves to 25-15 overall and 10-4 in the SoCon, while Furman falls to 15-24 overall and 4-7 in league play.

UP NEXT
The Bears will go for the sweep on Sunday afternoon, Apr. 24, as they close out the series with Furman at 1 p.m.