Family Weekend and Senior Day Highlight Mercer Softball Action This Weekend

Saturday, April 29

Macon, Ga.

1 PM ET

Mercer University

Western Carolina

Family Weekend and Senior Day Highlight Mercer Softball Action This Weekend

4/28/2017 3:50:00 PM | Softball

Live Stats

By: Patrick T. Walsh

MACON, Ga. – Mercer returns home to Sikes Field to begin a four-game homestand to close out the regular season starting with a three-game series against Western Carolina starting Saturday afternoon.

Family weekend highlights the action for the series with the Mercer Maniacs handing out King of Pops ice cream to Mercer students during Saturday's doubleheader while Sunday will be Senior Day as the four Bear seniors will be honored prior to first pitch.

The series against the Catamounts marks the final three conferences games of the season as the regular season begins to wind down.

THE WESTERN CAROLINA SERIES (Family Weekend/Senior Day)
Teams: Mercer (21-28, 7-8 SoCon) vs. Western Carolina (14-25, 3-8 SoCon)
Location: Macon, Ga. | Sikes Field
Game 1: Saturday, April 29 | 1 p.m. | Live Stats
Game 2: Saturday, April 29 | 3 p.m. | Live Stats
Game 3: Sunday, April 30 | 1 p.m. | Live Stats | Senior Day
Twitter Updates: @MercerUSoftball

Quick Hits

Mercer returns home to Sikes Field for a four-game homestand to close the regular season starting with a three-game series against Western Carolina.
Mercer leads Western Carolina in the all-time series, 7-3, but is looking to return to its winning ways after dropping the last two decisions against the Catamounts.
Western Carolina is 14-25 on the year after splitting a pair of games at home against Virginia Tech on Tuesday, capping that doubleheader off with a 6-5 win. The Catamounts are 3-8 in SoCon play this year and split a pair of games at home against ETSU last weekend with the rubber game getting canceled due to inclement weather. WCU ranks seventh nationally in doubles per game (1.64) and 11th in double plays per game (0.54).
The Bears continue to be one of the nation's most dangerous teams on the base paths, ranking 13th nationally (and first in the SoCon) with an average of 2.04 steals per game.
Mercer needs only four more wins to record the program's 700th overall victory.

Senior Salute
On Sunday Mercer will pay tribute to its four seniors making their final appearance in a conference series at Sikes Field. The Bears will honor the contributions of Taylor Miller, Anna O'Neill, Taylor Rodgers and Maxine Rodriguez.

Looking to Double Conference Win Total
Mercer enters its final Southern Conference series needing just one win to reach eight on the year. Notable in reaching that mark is it would double the number of conference wins the team registered last year (4). A sweep of the Catamounts would match the most conference wins (10) the Bears have recorded since joining the Southern Conference.

Rud Sets Program Season Stolen Base Record
Meghan Rud set a new single season school record in the third inning of Mercer's April 13 game at South Carolina as she swiped her 32nd base of the year. That broke her own record of 31 stolen bases, set last year and matched this season.

But she can't let up. Taylor Miller is hot on her heels with 30 swipes on the year and continues to keep pace with Rud.

Stolen Bases (Single Season)

No.	Player	Year
34	Meghan Rud	2017
32	Taylor Miller	2017
31	Meghan Rud	2016
27	Anna Johnson	2011
26	Kristi Hopkins	2000

Career Record Coming Soon ... But to Whom?
Meghan Rud set a new single season school record in stolen bases in April this year but she has competition if she wants the career record (this year). Teammate Taylor Miller has 89 career stolen bases while Rud enters this week's action with 86. Both are quickly approaching the Mercer career record of 93 stolen bases set by McKenzie Woody (2011-14).

Stolen Bases (Career)

No.	Player	Years
93	McKenzie Woody	2011-14
89	Taylor Miller	2014-Present
86	Meghan Rud	2015-Present
77	Anna Johnson	2008-11
42	Shannon Tolin	1997-98

Busting the Books
The records are starting to fall. Already Meghan Rud has broken (her own) school record for stolen bases in a single season. Stella Preston joined the club as she set a new single season record for saves.

Category	New Record	Old Record (Season)
Saves	5, Stella Preston	4, Kristi Montgomery (2003)
Stolen Bases	34, Meghan Rud	31, Meghan Rud (2016)

Stella!
Stella Preston is having quite the freshman season. Already having set the program's single-season record for saves at five (see above), she ranks third nationally and leads the Southern Conference in the category while her ERA of 2.85 ranks third in the league behind only Furman's Lindsey Bert (1.88) and Mercer's Megan Bilgri (2.35).

Mercer Led By Strong Arms
Mercer's performance in the pitching circle has been exemplary and the numbers back that up. Entering this week's games, Mercer's Megan Bilgri (2.35) and Stella Preston (2.85) rank second and third, respectively, in the SoCon in ERA. But those numbers get even more impressive when you look at conference-only games, where Bilgri (1.21) and Preston (1.45) pack a powerful punch.

Pitcher	ERA	SoCon Rank	SoCon ERA	Rank
Megan Bilgri	2.35	2nd	1.21	1st
Stella Preston	2.85	3rd	1.45	3rd

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 100 for 112 in stolen base attempts, ranking 13th nationally with 2.04 steals per game. Meghan Rud (34) and Taylor Miller (30) are the top two stolen base threats in the conference.

Mercer Stolen Bases Nationally Ranked
Name    Nat'l      SoCon   Stat
Taylor Miller       18           1              0.69
Meghan Rud      23           2              0.67

Better than Teams in the SoCon
Both Meghan Rud and Taylor Miller not only are nationally ranked in stolen bases but their marks are better than most Southern Conference teams. Meghan Rud's program record-setting 32 stolen bases is just one swipe shy of Furman's entire team total for the year while Rud and Miller individually have more stolen bases than half the teams in the league.

Stolen Bases

Name	SB
Samford	52
Furman	40
Meghan Rud	34
Taylor Miller	32
UNCG	25
Chattanooga	21
Western Carolina	19
ETSU	5

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.