Mercer Rallies Past Western Carolina, 9-8; Reaches Second Straight SoCon Title Game

Saturday, May 28

Greenville, S.C.

12:00 p.m.

Mercer University

38-21

Western Carolina University

27-29

Mercer

Western Carolina

Mercer Rallies Past Western Carolina, 9-8; Reaches Second Straight SoCon Title Game

5/28/2016 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

GREENVILLE, S.C. – The Mercer University baseball team scored six runs over the final two innings to seal a 9-8 victory over Western Carolina on Saturday at Fluor Field. The Bears advance to the Southern Conference Championship title game for the second straight season and will play again Sunday, May 29, against the winner of tonight's loser's bracket finale.

HOW IT HAPPENED
Western Carolina grabbed a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first on Matt Smith's RBI double with two outs. The Catamounts pushed their lead to 4-0 in the third, scoring on a wild pitch and getting two more runs on Kramer Ferrell's two-run single.

Mercer broke up a no-hit bid in the fifth, as back-to-back singles from Matt Meeder and Trey Truitt set up Kyle Lewis' three-run blast over the green monster in left field to pull within one, 4-3.

The Catamounts pushed their lead back to four, 7-3, with a trio of runs in the seventh. Smith drove in two with his second double of the day, before Ferrell's RBI single wrapped up the scoring in the frame.

The Bears rallied for four runs to tie the game in the top of the eighth. Lewis and Charlie Madden each drew a walk to lead-off the frame, before crossing the plate on Ryan Hagan's three-run bomb to left. Meeder closed out the rally with a RBI single through the right side, plating Jackson Ware to tie the game at 7-7.

Mercer grabbed its first lead of the game in the top of the ninth, as Blaise Leyznksi scored Lewis with a single to right field. Ware added an insurance run with his RBI triple, handing the Bears a 9-7 advantage.

Western Carolina plated one run in the bottom of the ninth, but Austin Lord silenced the Catamounts with a game-ending strikeout.

KEY TO THE GAME
After being held hitless until one out in the fifth inning, the Bears exploded for nine runs over the final five innings, including six in the final two frames. Six of the team's nine hits came during the final two innings of play. Lord kept the momentum in Mercer's favor with a six-pitch eighth, setting up the Bears' go-ahead ninth-inning rally.

PLAYER OF THE GAME
Lewis' three-run homer in the fifth was the spark the Bears needed to climb out of a 4-0 hole. His home run was his 20th of the season, becoming just the eighth player in program history to reach the mark. The junior scored a team-high three times in the contest, while also drawing his 64th walk of the season. The three RBIs pushed his season total to 72 thanks to his 18th multiple-RBI effort in 2016.

LEWIS ON STAYING FOCUSED AFTER 4-0 DEFICIT
"We always knew something was coming and that we were on the brink of breaking through. I was just trying to tell the guys to relax and continue to believe in ourselves. Being able to pull that one off is huge going into tomorrow."

LEZYNSKI ON GAME-WINNING RBI-SINGLE IN THE NINTH
(Biumi's) delivery was a little slow, so that allowed me to get my weight back. All day I was trying to get the ball on the barrel – I was seeing it well today – things just didn't work out early on. Luckily I found a pitch that was across the plate and it found my barrel. No. 1 through No. 9 it was incredible; everyone contributed and I just wanted to be one of them."

LEZYNSKI ON CHANCES OF RALLYING
"Earlier this tournament we put up a nine-spot in one inning, so I told the guys to dig deep, let's win pitches, compete out there and good things will happen. We trust in our abilities and we've shown resilience."

HAGAN ON HIS THREE-RUN HOME RUN
"It was a struggle for me before that at-bat, so I just tried to slow everything down that time around. (Davis) had walked the two guys in front of me, so I was expecting to see a fastball. One pitch, one spot and I was able to get a swing on it with a good result.

COACH GIBSON'S TAKE
"You're not a good team until you can come from behind. We've been battle-tested this year; we've been in a lot of close games. When we did get down 4-0, there wasn't a lot of panic and we had a chance to get back in it late.

"Great baseball game. Western Carolina has a great team, we just found a way to outscore them today."

NOTABLES

Mercer is now 7-0 all-time in SoCon Championship play and advances to the league's championship game for a second consecutive season.
The Bears own a 6-3 advantage in the all-time series with Western Carolina, including wins in each of the last three match-ups.
The Orange and Black drew six walks in the contest, increasing their SoCon single-season record total to 358.
Mercer now has nine home runs in the SoCon Championship following a pair of long balls hit on Saturday. Lewis and Truitt both lead the team with three apiece.
The Bears were plagued by eight walks issued, as six of Western Carolina's eight runs came from runners who reached on a free pass. Mercer had only issued one free pass in its first two games of the tournament.
It marks the first time this tournament that the Bears have surrendered more than one run.
Lord gave up one run on two hits over the final two innings of action to improve to 5-1 on the year.
Conard Broom tossed four innings of relief in his nation-leading 40th appearance of the season while striking out five batters and allowing only one hit. It was the fourth time the freshman has struck out at least five batters.
Hagan's three-run shot in the eighth was his eighth long ball of the year. He pushed his RBI total to 55 on the year thanks to his 13th multiple-RBI effort of the season.
Meeder reached base in all four of his trips to the plate for the second straight game, finishing 2-for-3 with one walk while also reaching on an error. He now has 13 multiple-hit performances this season.
Ware's triple in the ninth handed him his eighth multiple-hit effort of the year, as he finished 2-for-4 with one RBI.
Danny Edgeworth's career-best on-base streak of 22 games was snapped Saturday, as he went 0-for-5 at the plate.
Lewis moved into sole possession of third place on the SoCon single-season walks list with 64, as he drew one free pass on Saturday.

RECORDS UPDATE
Mercer moves to 38-21 overall while Western Carolina drops to 27-29.

UP NEXT
The Bears will take on the winner of tonight's 7:30 p.m. contest in the loser's bracket during the SoCon Championship title game at noon on Sunday at Fluor Field.