Mercer Hosts League-Leading Spartans

MACON, Ga. – Mercer returns home to the friendly confines of Sikes Field as the Bears will host the Southern Conference-leading UNCG Spartans in a three-game series starting with a doubleheader on Saturday at 1 p.m.

UNCG is perfect in league play after a sweep of Western Carolina followed by a bye weekend. Thanks to inclement weather on Wednesday, UNCG will head to Macon having not played a game in 10 days.

SERIES DETAILS
Teams: Mercer (17-22, 3-3 SoCon) vs. UNCG (20-14, 3-0 SoCon)
Dates: Saturday-Sunday, April 8-9
Location: Macon, Ga. | Sikes Field
Game 1: Saturday, April 8 | 1 p.m. | Live Stats
Game 2: Saturday, April 8 | 3 p.m. | Live Stats
Game 3: Sunday, April 9 | 1 p.m. | Live Stats
Twitter Updates: @MercerUSoftball

Quick Hits
• Mercer returns home to host UNCG in the Bears' second-to-last home series of the season.
• Mercer is 3-5 all-time against the Spartans with a 1-1 mark in games played in Macon.
• The Bears are coming off a low-scoring series at ETSU where a totla of seven runs were scored all weekend combined.
• UNCG is coming off a 2-0 loss at North Carolina but that game was back on Wednesday, March 29. When the Bears and Spartans play on Saturday it will be UNCG's first game in 10 days. The Spartans were scheduled to play at NC State on Wednesday, April 5 but inclement weather forced the cancellation of that contest.
• UNCG leads the SoCon in slugging pct. (.469), on-base percentage (.371), RBIs (160) and home runs (45).

Bye, Bye, Bye!
As Mercer prepares to host UNCG this weekend, the Spartans will travel to Macon having not played in the past 10 days due to UNCG having their bye weekend in SoCon play (due to an uneven number of SoCon softball programs). This will mark the third consecutive SoCon opponent the Bears will face coming off their bye weekend with a fourth consecutive opponent coming off a bye weekend waiting in Furman next weekend.

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

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 84 for 94 in stolen base attempts, ranking 12th nationally with 2.15 steals per game. Meghan Rud (30) and Taylor Miller (25) are the top two stolen base threats in the conference.

Mercer Stolen Bases Nationally Ranked

Name	Nat'l	SoCon	Stat
Taylor Miller	18	1	0.77
Meghan Rud	21	2	0.71

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. Miller's mark is better than all but two SoCon teams while Rud's number is better than all but one.

Stolen Bases

Name	SB
Samford	42
Meghan Rud	30
Furman	29
Taylor Miller	25
UNCG	24
Chattanooga	17
Western Carolina	17
ETSU	4

Where do The Bears Rank?
Just how remarkable is Mercer's stolen base mark? The Bears enter the weekend with 84 stolen bases, ranking 10th all-time for a single season in Southern Conference history. With the entire conference season still yet to be played, Mercer is likely to move up in that list but how high will the Bears climb? The SoCon record for stolen bases in the season is 136 set by Appalachian State back in 2004.

Rank	SBs	School	Year
1.	136	Appalachian State	2004
2.	116	Georgia Southern	1999
3.	102	Appalachian State	2007
4.	98	College of Charleston	2001
	98	Appalachian State	2010
6.	96	UNCG	2000
7.	93	ETSU	2005
8.	89	Mercer	2015
9.	87	Appalachian State	2003
10.	84	Mercer	2017

Getting Your Hacks In
Mercer's .283 team batting average is the second-best mark in the SoCon. Three Bears – Meghan Rud (.388), Taylor Miller (.398) are all ranked in the top five in the SoCon in batting average while Megan Lane (.319) and Quirisa Mauga (.313) rank in the top 20.

•             Mercer owns two of the SoCon's top three individual runs scored totals in Rud (33) and Miller (3rd, 28) while Megan Lane (22) ranks seventh
•             Mauga leads the league wtih 34 RBIs
•             Mauga is second the league in doubles (13)
•             Rud sits tied atop the SoCon in triples (4)

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.

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Players Mentioned

Megan Lane

Quirisa Mauga

Taylor Miller

Meghan Rud

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