Mercer Hosts Western Carolina, Finishes Regular Season Play

Thursday, May 18

Macon, Ga.

6 p.m.

Mercer University

Western Carolina

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Mercer Hosts Western Carolina, Finishes Regular Season Play

5/17/2017 5:02:00 PM | Baseball

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Three-game series highlighted by Senior Day

By: Gerrit Van Genderen

MACON, Ga. – Mercer concludes the 2017 regular season with a three-game Southern Conference series against Western Carolina this week, starting with a 6 p.m. clash Thursday night at OrthoGeorgia Park.

Saturday's finale between the Bears (38-13, 17-4 SoCon) and the Catamounts (26-26, 13-8) will be prefaced by a Senior Day ceremony for 10 players. Mercer clinched the SoCon regular season title last weekend at Wofford, but still has a chance to reach 40 overall wins and 20 in conference play.

The two programs last faced one another in the 2016 SoCon Championship, when Western Carolina defeated Mercer twice to clinch the title and an automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament.

Rick Cameron will have the call on the airwaves all series via the flagship station 97.3 FM The Bull Icons and on the iHeartRadio app.

SERIES LINEUP
Teams: Mercer (38-13, 17-4 SoCon) vs. Western Carolina (26-26, 13-8 SoCon)
Location: Macon, Ga. | OrthoGeorgia Park
Thursday: May 18 | 6 p.m. | Live Stats | Listen
Friday: May 19 | 6 p.m. | Live Stats | Listen
Saturday: May 20 | 2 p.m. | Live Stats | Listen
Twitter Updates: @MercerBaseball
Projected Starters

Thursday: RHP Ryan Askew (4-1, 4.50) vs. LHP Bryan Sammons (7-3, 3.19)
Friday: LHP Austin Cox (3-1, 5.64) vs. LHP Brendan Nail (5-7, 7.11)
Saturday: RHP Kevin Coulter (5-2, 4.81) vs. LHP Tristan Baker (4-3, 6.75)

Quick Hits

Mercer clinched its third consecutive Southern Conference regular season title with a series win at Wofford last weekend.
The Bears will face three left-handed starting pitchers this weekend. Mercer is 10-3 when facing a lefty starter.
A pair of wins would mark the second time in program history Mercer has reached 40 wins.
Mercer is No. 51 in the latest RPI rankings while receiving votes in the NCBWA Top-30 poll.
Ryan Hagan earned SoCon Player of the Week honors Monday after batting .500 with five RBIs and two home runs in the series win at Wofford.

Scouting Western Carolina
The Catamounts are 4-6 in their last 10 games, only four of which have been SoCon contests. Western Carolina has not played a conference game since May 7 when it split a doubleheader with Wofford to claim the series victory. Since then, the Catamounts have dropped four of six nonconference games including a 6-0 loss to Presbyterian Tuesday.

The conference's leader in hits (571), Western Carolina is led by the trio of Bryson Bowman (.376, 10 home runs), Brett Pope (.357, 56 runs) and Nobu Suzuki (.420 in SoCon). Left-hander Bryan Sammons leads the Catamounts' weekend rotation and has 94 strikeouts in 90 innings.

Series History
Mercer owns a small advantage in the short-lived all-time series with Western Carolina, 6-5. The Bears have won both regular-season series each of the last two years, but dropped a pair in last year's SoCon Championship.

Last Meeting
Mercer dropped a doubleheader to Western Carolina, 4-2 and 3-2, on the final day of the 2016 Southern Conference Championship at Fluor Field. Mercer finished as the tournament runner-up with a 38-23 overall record. The Bears' bats were stifled both games against efforts from Western Carolina's Bryan Sammons (seven innings, game one) and B.J. Nobles (8.2 innings, game two).

Thank You, Seniors
Mercer's coaching staff will recognize 10 graduating seniors before Saturday's series finale at OrthoGeorgia Park. Those Bears include Ryan Askew, Howard Joe, Ben Upton, Matt Meeder, Danny Edgeworth, Josh Knies, Charlie Madden, Ryan Hagan, Hunter Bening and Cam Wesolowski.

Many of those 10 seniors have played critical roles in Mercer's three consecutive SoCon regular season titles and the 2015 SoCon Tournament title and NCAA Tournament berth.

Defend Your Turf
Mercer takes an 18-7 home record into the season-ending three-game series. The Bears have seen serious offensive success at OrthoGeorgia Park this year; they average 7.9 runs per game while seven players are batting at least .325. Despite dropping four of its last five home games, Mercer will look to get back on track this weekend.

Weapon of Choice: A Broom
Robert Broom has been the Southern Conference's most electric relief pitcher this season, working his way to an 8-1 record and 2.06 ERA. Batters are hitting only .189 against him while he has notched 74 strikeouts in 56.2 innings. His work not only earned him SoCon Pitcher of the Month honors for April, but also a spot on the NCBWA Stopper of the Year Midseason Watch List.

Hagan in Charge
A slow start to the season did not prevent Ryan Hagan from working his way into an impressive senior campaign at the plate and defensively. Hagan – named SoCon Player of the Week on Monday afternoon – is batting .303 overall and .409 in SoCon play. His .491 on base percentage, nine stolen bases, 13 walks, seven home runs and .693 slugging percentage are top marks among all SoCon shortstops in conference action.

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.