Mercer Opens Home Stand with Alcorn State

Thursday, May 10

Macon, Ga.

6 p.m.

Mercer University

Alcorn State

Tickets

Photo by: Gerrit Van Genderen

5/9/2018 4:21:00 PM | Baseball

Tickets Watch (Game 2)Watch (Game 3)

Bears host Braves in three-game nonconference series

By: Gerrit W. Van Genderen

MACON, Ga. – Mercer will host Alcorn State in a three-game nonconference series and open a regular season-ending home stand at 6 p.m. Thursday at OrthoGeorgia Park.

The Bears will seven remaining regular season games at home. Mercer's three-game clash with Alcorn State (12-34) is its first nonconference series since hosting Eastern Kentucky on March 16-18. Mercer did not play a midweek contest for the second straight week and will look to bounce back from last weekend's series loss at Southern Conference foe UNCG.

Friday and Saturday's games will be broadcasted live via ESPN3 and ESPN+, respectively. All three games have projected first pitch times of 6 p.m.

WEEKEND OUTLOOK
Teams: Mercer (31-18) vs. Alcorn State (12-34)
Location: Macon, Ga. | OrthoGeorgia Park
Tickets: www.tickets.mercer.edu
Thursday: May 10 | 6 p.m. | Live Stats
Friday: May 11 | 6 p.m. | Live Stats | ESPN3
Saturday: May 12 | 6 p.m. | Live Stats | ESPN+
Projected Starters:

Thursday: LHP Christian Vann (4-3, 3.58 ERA) vs. TBA
Friday: LHP Austin Cox (6-3, 4.87 ERA) vs. TBA
Saturday: RHP Chase Burks (5-4, 5.55 ERA) vs. TBA

Batting Practice

Mercer is 21-7 in nonconference play and 10-3 in midweek games this season.
Mercer is four wins away from reaching 35 victories for the ninth straight season.
The Bears lead the nation with 516 total strikeouts and 10.8 strikeouts per nine innings.
Two Bears – Austin Cox (97 strikeouts) and Robert Broom (92 strikeouts) have a chance to surpass 100 strikeouts for the season this weekend.
Mercer is 19-8 at OrthoGeorgia Park this season. It is Mercer's most home wins since the 2016 season (19-10).
Alex Hanson has defined consistency since joining the Bears; he has reached base safely in 70 of the last 74 games. He has also started all of his 101 games played for Mercer.
RJ Yeager has played every inning of all 49 games at shortstop for Mercer.
Mercer is one of six teams with 13 or more players to have hit at least one home run this season (Tennessee Tech, 15; Houston Baptist, 14; Elon, 13; Davidson, 13; Clemson, 13).
Broom ranks fourth nationally with 13.8 strikeouts per nine innings. His 1.35 ERA ranks eighth nationally and also leads the SoCon.
Trey Truitt and Le Bassett lead the SoCon with 11 home runs apiece.
Truitt and Jackson Ware are two of five active SoCon players with 200 or more career games played.
Mercer ranks in the top-25 nationally of nine different statistical categories.
- Strikeouts (first, 516)
- Strikeouts per nine innings (first, 10.8)
- Hit by pitch (eighth, 79)
- Runs (eighth, 367)
- Scoring (eighth, 7.5)
- Hits (10th, 511)
- Home runs (11th, 60)
- Home runs per game (13th, 1.22)
- Slugging percentage (25th, .453)

A Look at the Series
Mercer and Alcorn State will clash for the first time on the baseball diamond Thursday night. The two programs have never faced one another before. The three-game series also marks the first time Mercer has played against a SWAC opponent this season.

A Look at Alcorn State
The Braves (12-34) concluded SWAC play last weekend with a series loss to Alabama A&M at home. The three-game nonconference series at Mercer marks the conclusion of Alcorn State's regular season; it is slotted as the No. 4 seed in next week's SWAC Tournament in New Orleans.

Alcorn State is batting a collective .257 and is led by Justin Barma (.321) offensively. The Braves have just 15 home runs on the season and average just over 4.5 runs per game. Carlos Lopez is Alcorn State's top arm on the mound; he is 4-2 with a 3.90 ERA and 81 strikeouts in 67 innings pitched.

Follow the Bears
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