Mercer Opens SoCon Play with ETSU

MACON, Ga. – Mercer's quest for a third consecutive Southern Conference championship begins this weekend at OrthoGeorgia Park as the Bears welcome ETSU for a three-game series, starting Friday, March 24 at 6 p.m.

The Bears (19-4) are off to their best start during Head Coach Craig Gibson's 14-year tenure and own a 12-1 record on their home turf so far this season. Since its inaugural season as a conference member, Mercer has won both of its SoCon-opening series, including a sweep of ETSU in 2015.

Friday's series opener will be broadcasted on the American Sports Network (ASN) with Pete Yannity (play-by-play) and Mercer Athletics Director Jim Cole (color) getting the call. All three games will air on the Mercer Sports Network via the flagship station 97.3 FM The Bull Icons and on the iHeartRadio app.

GAMEDAY LINEUP
Teams: Mercer (19-4, 0-0 SoCon) vs. ETSU (11-7, 0-0 SoCon)
Location: Macon, Ga. | OrthoGeorgia Park
Tickets: MercerBears.com
Friday: March 24 | 6 p.m. | Live Stats | Watch | Listen
Saturday: March 25 | 2 p.m. | Live Stats | Listen
Sunday: March 26 | 1 p.m. | Live Stats | Listen
Twitter Updates: @MercerBaseball
Projected Starters

Friday: RHP Ryan Askew (3-0, 4.35) vs. RHP Ryan Simpler (3-2, 4.40)
Saturday: LHP Austin Cox (1-1, 6.56) vs. RHP Drew Korzybski (2-2, 3.38)
Sunday: RHP Chase Burks (1-0, 2.16) vs. RHP Blake Smith (1-2, 2.59)

Quick Hits

Mercer has won its last four conference-opening series dating back to 2013. The Bears have also swept their last two series against the Bucs.
Mercer is receiving votes in the latest ESPN/USA Today Coaches' Poll and NCBWA Top 25 poll.
The Bears own a 26-13 advantage over ETSU in the two programs' all-time series. Mercer is 6-0 against the Bucs since joining the SoCon.
Craig Gibson notched his 450th career victory with Mercer's 11-5 win over Florida A&M on Wednesday.

Scouting the Bucs
ETSU (11-7) owns five series wins this season, having defeated the likes of Central Michigan, Oakland, Western Michigan, Gardner Webb and Miami (Ohio). The Bucs' lone series loss came at the hands of Florida A&M, which Mercer went 2-2 against this season.

ETSU has proven to be more than capable at the plate, batting a SoCon-best .328 as a unit, which ranks eighth in the nation. Hunter Parker (.419) and Chrisitan Bailey (.395) lead the squad in batting average. Senior right-hander Blake Smith was named the SoCon Pitcher of the Week on Monday after tossing a two-hit complete game shutout of Miami (Ohio) while striking out 14 batters.

Going For Three
The quest for a third consecutive SoCon championship begins this weekend at OrthoGeorgia Park. Projected to win the SoCon by a vote of the media - and a second place projection by only one point from the coaches' preseason poll, Mercer enters league play with a SoCon-best 19-4 record and has won both conference-opening series since its first season as a member in 2015.

Home, Sweet, Home
Friendly confines, indeed. Mercer is 12-1 at home after opening OrthoGeorgia Park with a 10-0 record to start the season. It marked the second-best home start in program history. The Bears suffered their first home loss March 12 to Bradley.

Year          Home Start          First Loss                    Score
2014          11-0                     Kennesaw State        2-1
2017          10-0                     Bradley 8-6
2013          8-0                       Ga. Southern              10-8

Small Ball, Long Ball
The Mercer offense is proving it can do a bit of everything, as it ranks third nationally with 37 home runs and first nationally with 38 sacrifice bunts. Those figures are reflected on an individual level as Charlie Madden is in a seven-way tie for first place nationally in home runs (9) while JT Thomas ranks 17th with seven. Jackson Ware and Alex Hanson are first and second nationally in sacrifice bunts as well.

Southern Power
Mercer has found its hot bats as it leads the Southern Conference in several offensive categories including home runs (37), home runs per game (1.61), on-base percentage (.431), scoring (9.0), slugging percentage (.530) and hits (255).

And Fire Power
The early success is not limited to Mercer's hitters as the Bears' pitching staff has a SoCon-leading 209 strikeouts, wins (19), innings pitched (208.0) and is second in earned run average (4.46).

FOLLOW THE BEARS
For complete coverage of Mercer Baseball, please follow the Bears on social media at @MercerBaseball (Twitter), /MercerBaseball (Facebook) and @Mercer.Baseball (Instagram) or visit the official home of Mercer Athletics at MercerBears.com.

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Players Mentioned

Ryan Askew

Chase Burks

Austin Cox

Alex Hanson

Charlie Madden

JT Thomas

Jackson Ware

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