Mercer Returns Home to Host Catamounts

Friday, April 12

Macon, Ga.

6 p.m.

Mercer University

Western Carolina

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Photo by: Iran Hernandez Imbert

4/11/2019 1:00:00 PM | Baseball

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Bears look to keep momentum rolling in conference action

By: Gerrit W. Van Genderen

MACON, Ga. – Mercer will look to keep its momentum rolling in Southern Conference play when it returns home to host Western Carolina in a three-game series at OrthoGeorgia Park this weekend.

The action begins at 6 p.m. Friday, followed by games two and three at 2 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday, respectively. The Bears (15-18, 4-5 SoCon) are tied for fifth in the conference standings after notching their first SoCon series win of the season at The Citadel last weekend. Western Carolina (14-15, 3-6) sits in eighth place.

Saturday and Sunday's games will be streamed live on ESPN3 and ESPN+. All three games will have live stats provided.

WEEKEND LINEUP
Teams: Mercer (15-18, 4-5 SoCon) vs. Western Carolina (14-15, 3-6 SoCon)
Location: Macon, Ga. | OrthoGeorgia Park
Friday: April 12 | 6 p.m. | Live Stats
Saturday: April 13 | 2 p.m. | Live Stats | ESPN3
Sunday: April 14 | 1 p.m. | Live Stats | ESPN+
Projected Rotations:

Friday: RHP Kevin Coulter vs. LHP Taylor Purus
Saturday: LHP Beau Healy vs. RHP Chase Walter
Sunday: LHP Tanner Hall vs. TBA

Batting Practice

Mercer and Western Carolina faced one another five times last season, including twice at the SoCon Tournament. The Bears won four of those five games, including both contests in the tournament.
The Bears are 11-10 at OrthoGeorgia Park this season.
Mercer is 11-5 when scoring at least one run in the first inning this season.
Tanner Hall has been electric in three starts against conference opponents. The lefty is 2-0 with a 1.20 earned run average over 15 innings. Opposing batters are hitting just .164 against him in his three SoCon starts.
Kel Johnson owns a 32-game reached base streak entering the weekend. He ranks fourth nationally with 14 home runs and is among national leaders in RBI (39) and slugging percentage (.669).
RJ Yeager leads the team in batting average (.341) and owns a team-best 14 multi-hit performances.
Mercer is one of four NCAA Division I programs to win at least 35 games in each of the past nine seasons, joining LSU, Florida State and Vanderbilt.

Series History

Series: Mercer leads, 10-8
First Meeting: March 7, 2007 in Cullowhee, N.C. (Mercer won, 13-10)
Last Meeting: May 26, 2018 in Greenville, S.C. (Mercer won, 10-2)
Streak: Mercer, 4

Scouting Western Carolina
The Catamounts picked up a mid-week nonconference win over Gardner-Webb on Wednesday and head into the weekend with a 14-15 (3-6) record. A series loss to Wofford last weekend included 20-5 and 7-4 defeats on Friday and Sunday. Western Carolina did earn a series victory at UNCG the weekend prior, however. Through nine conference games, Western Carolina is second in the SoCon in batting average (3.10), but rank at the bottom of the league in ERA (6.90). Justice Bigbie leads the league with a .472 batting average in SoCon play.

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.