Baseball Holds Off ETSU, 7-5, for Series-Opening Victory

Friday, April 8

Johnson City, TN

4 pm

Mercer University

18-13, 0

East Tenn. St.

15-14, 0

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Mercer	2	0	1	2	0	0	0	2	0	7	9	0
East Tennessee State	0	0	0	1	0	0	2	0	2	5	12	2

Baseball Holds Off ETSU, 7-5, for Series-Opening Victory

4/9/2016 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. – The Mercer University baseball team defeated East Tennessee State, 7-5, in the Southern Conference series opener at Thomas Stadium.

HOW IT HAPPENED
Mercer raced out to an early lead, scoring the first five runs of the game. Charlie Madden started the scoring with a two-run single in the first before Ben Upton pushed the Bears' lead to 3-0 with a solo shot in the third. The Orange and Black added two more runs in the top of the fourth for a 5-0 lead thanks to back-to-back RBI singles with two outs from Kyle Lewis and Ryan Hagan.

ETSU stopped the bleeding in the bottom of the fourth on Kevin Phillips' solo home run and would add two more runs in the seventh to trim the Bears' lead to 5-3 before the game was suspended due to rain.

Mercer added two insurances runs in the top of the eighth, once play resumed. Lewis drove in his second run of the game with a RBI single to start the rally, before Upton's sacrifice fly pushed the lead to 7-3. However, the Bucs trimmed the deficit to two, 7-5, on Robby McCabe's two-run homer in the ninth, before Conard Broom recorded the final two outs for the save.

KEY TO THE GAME
The Bears, who lead the nation in walks, drew seven in the opener while also getting two additional free passes on hit batters. Those free base runners resulted in three runs for Mercer, which only allowed ETSU to walk two times.

PLAYER OF THE GAME
Lewis reached in four of his five trips to the plate to push his on-base streak to a team-leading 31 games. The junior finished 2-for-3 with two RBIs, a walk and a hit by pitch for his 50th career multiple hit performance.

NOTABLES

Mercer moves to 25-13 in the all-time series with ETSU, having won the last four match-ups between the two programs.
The Bears are now 5-3 in weekend series openers this season.
Ryan Askew recorded his third straight quality start for his second win of the year, after giving up three runs on nine hits in seven innings of action. The junior struck out four batters in the contest.
Broom recorded the final two outs to pick up his first career save.
Upton's home run in the third was his fifth of the season, giving Mercer five players with five or more long balls this season.
Madden's two-run single gave him the eight multiple-RBI performance of the year. He finished 1-for-2 at the plate with a pair of walks.
Hagan finished 2-for-4 at the plate for his team-leading 16th multiple-hit effort of 2016.
Edgeworth notched his eighth game with two or more hits, while scoring a team-high three runs.

RECORDS UPDATE
Mercer moves to 18-13 overall and 4-3 in the SoCon, while ETSU falls to 15-14 overall and 3-4 in league play.