Mercer Travels to Furman to Close Regular Season

Thursday, May 16

Greenville, S.C.

6 p.m.

Mercer University

Furman

Photo by: Mitch Robinson

Mercer Travels to Furman to Close Regular Season

5/15/2019 12:08:00 PM | Baseball

Bears aiming for fifth straight weekend series win

By: Gerrit W. Van Genderen

MACON, Ga. – Mercer will wrap up the regular season with a trip to Greenville, S.C. to face Furman in a Southern Conference series at Latham Stadium on May 16-18.

The series starts at 6 p.m. Thursday. Games two and three of the series are both scheduled for 1 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. All three games will be streamed on the SoCon Digital Network.

Mercer (28-24, 13-8) is tied with UNCG (32-15, 13-8) for second place in the SoCon standings and is narrowly trailed by Wofford (31-22, 12-8).

SERIES LINEUP
Teams: Mercer (28-24, 13-8) at Furman (23-28, 11-10)
Location: Greenville, S.C. | Latham Stadium
Thursday: May 16 | 6 p.m. | SoCon Digital Network | Live Stats
Friday: May 17 | 1 p.m. | SoCon Digital Network | Live Stats
Saturday: May 18 | 1 p.m. | SoCon Digital Network | Live Stats
Projected Rotations:

Thursday: RHP Sawyer Gipson-Long vs. LHP John Michael Bertrand
Friday: RHP Kevin Coulter vs. RHP David Dunlavey
Saturday: LHP Tanner Hall vs. TBD

Batting Practice

Mercer has won its last four weekend series dating back to a sweep at VMI on April 18-20.
The Bears are tied for second in the SoCon standings.
Mercer lost two of three games to Furman in Macon last season.
Mercer swept Furman in its last road trip to Greenville in 2017.
Kel Johnson ranks fifth nationally with 21 home runs. He is tied for the fourth most single-season home runs in program history.
Nick Spear owns 19 career saves and is just two away from breaking Mercer's career record (20), set by Andrew Urena (2005-06).
Tanner Hall leads Mercer with 13 starts this season. He boasts a 4-1 record in league contests.
Kyle Dockus leads Mercer in batting average (.313), runs (44), hits (63), walks (30), on base percentage (.415) and stolen bases (15).
A trio of freshmen – Angelo DiSpigna, Collin Price and Bill Knight – have started 50, 42 and 30 games, respectively, this season.
RJ Yeager has started 112 consecutive games at shortstop since the start of his freshman season.
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, 22-9
At Furman: Mercer leads, 7-3
First Meeting: April 24, 1897 in Macon | Mercer won, 8-7
Last Meeting: April 8, 2018 in Macon | Mercer won, 3-2
Streak: Mercer, 1

Scouting Furman
The Paladins (23-28, 11-10) are in fifth place in the SoCon standings heading into the final series of the regular season. Furman won five straight games before dropping a series finale to Wofford last Sunday in Spartanburg. Senior outfielder Jabari Richards paces the Paladins' offense with a .350 batting average, eight home runs and 11 stolen bases. Furman's pitching staff owns a 5.22 ERA in SoCon 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.