Mercer Heads to Palmetto State for Four Straight Road Games

Thursday, April 13

Columbia, S.C.

5 PM ET

Mercer University

South Carolina

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Photo by: Bill Hirsh

Mercer Heads to Palmetto State for Four Straight Road Games

4/12/2017 5:09:00 PM | Softball

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Bears to face South Carolina, Furman over next three days

By: Patrick T. Walsh

MACON, Ga. – Mercer kicks off a seven-game road swing on Thursday with four games in three days across the Palmetto State starting with a 5 p.m. Thursday tilt at South Carolina. Thursday's game can be watched on the SEC Network + available on the Watch ESPN app.

THE SOUTH CAROLINA GAME
Teams: Mercer (19-23, 5-4 SoCon) at South Carolina (23-17, 3-11 SEC)
Date: Thursday, April 13 | 5 p.m.
Location: Columbia, S.C. | Carolina Stadium
Watch: SEC Network + | Watch ESPN
Live Stats: GameTracker
Twitter Updates: @MercerUSoftball

THE FURMAN SERIES
Teams: Mercer (19-23, 5-4 SoCon) at Furman (21-16, 5-1 SoCon)
Location: Greenville, S.C. | Pepsi Stadium
Game 1: Friday, April 14 | 1 p.m. | Live Video | Live Stats
Game 2: Friday, April 14 | 3 p.m. | Live Video | Live Stats
Game 3: Saturday, April 15 | Noon | Live Video | Live Stats
Twitter Updates: @MercerUSoftball

Quick Hits

Mercer hits the road for a four-game trip with a non-conference game at South Carolina Thursday followed by a three-game SoCon series at Furman on Friday and Saturday.
Mercer is 0-1 all-time against the Gamecocks with the only meeting a 7-2 defeat in Atlanta. Carolina is coming off a 3-2 loss at Coastal Carolina to bring their record to 23-17.
The Bears are 12-8 against Furman all-time. The Paladins are 21-16 (5-1 SoCon) this year and recently swept Winthrop in a doubleheader on Tuesday, 6-0 and 5-2. This marks the second straight weekend Mercer is facing the top-ranked team in the SoCon.

Mercer Heads to Palmetto State
With a non-conference game at South Carolina and a three-game set at Furman, Mercer will make its first and only scheduled trip to the state of South Carolina this weekend. Thursday's game will mark just the second time the Bears will face the Gamecocks and is Mercer's first visit to Columbia.

Bears Face Another SEC Program
When Mercer plays at South Carolina Thursday evening, it will mark the third time this season the Bears will face a member of the Southeastern Conference. The Orange and Black is looking for its first win over an SEC member since defeating Auburn, 3-0, on April 6, 2011.

Mercer vs. the SEC in 2017

Date	Opponent	Location	W/L	Score
Feb. 19	at #2 Auburn	Auburn, Ala.	L	1-10 (5)
Mar. 10	vs. #16 Georgia	Orlando, Fla.	L	3-12

Busting the Books
The records could start falling this week. Already this season two school records have been tied with Meghan Rud stealing bases and Stella Preston recording saves and each needs only one more mark to stand alone in Mercer's single season record book.

Category	2017 Mark	Current School Record (Season)
Stolen Bases	31, Meghan Rud	31, Meghan Rud (2016)
Saves	4, Stella Preston	4, Kristi Montgomery (2003)

Stella!
Stella Preston is having quite the freshman season. Already having tied the program's single-season record for saves at four (see above), she ranks third nationally and leads the Southern Conference in the category while her ERA of 2.79 ranks third in the league behind only Furman's Lindsey Bert (2.41) and Mercer's Megan Bilgri (2.68).

Bye, Bye, Bye!
As Mercer heads to Furman this weekend, despite mid-week games at Winthrop the Paladins will be well rested. That is because Furman is coming off their bye weekend in SoCon play (due to an uneven number of SoCon softball programs). This will mark the fourth consecutive SoCon opponent the Bears will face coming off their bye weekend, a streak that will finally come to an end following Mercer's series at Furman.

Date	SoCon Opponent	Previous Weekend
March 25-26	Chattanooga	Bye
April 1-2	ETSU	Bye
April 8-9	UNCG	Bye
April 14-15	Furman	Bye
April 22-23	Samford	UNCG
April 29-30	Western Carolina	ETSU

Facing First Again
For the second straight weekend, Mercer is facing the league leader. The Bears hosted UNCG in Macon last weekend, handing the Spartans their first losses in conference play of the season. After Mercer helped UNCG out of that top spot, Furman rose up just in time to face the Bears.

In the Blink of an Eye
Speed kills. After leading the Southern Conference in stolen bases for a second straight year in 2016 (76 swipes in 89 attempts), Mercer has already surpassed last year's total. The Bears are 88 for 99 in stolen base attempts, ranking 12th nationally with 2.15 steals per game. Meghan Rud (31) and Taylor Miller (26) are the top two stolen base threats in the conference.

Mercer Stolen Bases Nationally Ranked

Name	Nat'l	SoCon	Stat
Taylor Miller	18	1	0.74
Meghan Rud	22	2	0.68

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