Bears to Battle Georgia Tech at Sikes Field Tomorrow Evening

Wednesday, March 11

Macon, Ga.

6 PM

Mercer University

Georgia Tech

Photo by: Alex Keller

Bears to Battle Georgia Tech at Sikes Field Tomorrow Evening

3/10/2020 2:16:00 PM | Softball

@MercerUSoftball

The two teams will play for the 66th time tomorrow

By: Kraig Doremus

MACON, Ga. – The Mercer Bears will return to Sikes Field for the first time since February 23 when they host the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets tomorrow at 6 p.m.

GAMEDAY OUTLOOK
Date: Wednesday, March 11
Location: Macon, Ga. | Sikes Field
Teams: Mercer (10-16) vs. Georgia Tech (9-10)
Live Stats: StatBroadcast
Video: SoCon Digital Network
Twitter Updates: @MercerUSoftball

MERCER QUICK HITS

The Bears went 1-4 last week and stand 10-16 overall. Mercer's lone win in the Mizuno Classic came against Murray State. The Bears topped the Racers, 5-3.
With a 2-for-3, 2-run, 2-RBI performance in the win, Allie Jones recorded her ninth multi-hit game.
Jones is second on the team in multi-hit games. Danielle Castleberry leads the squad with 11 – 10 of which have been two-hit contests.
Jones has reached base safely in each of Mercer's 12 games.
Elisa Rosado is riding a seven-game hitting streak.
Castleberry and Micayla Rood have both recorded eight-game hitting streaks this season.
Nationally, Mercer is 31^st with 38 doubles and ranks 38^th with 1.73 stolen bases per game.
The Bears are scoring a SoCon best 5.15 runs per game and are batting a league-high .284.
Castleberry leads the Southern Conference in runs scored (20), hits (31), doubles (7) and hit by pitch (8).
Jones leads the league in triples (3) and is second in runs batted in (19), doubles (6) and total bases (42).
The Calhoun Ga. native is the SoCon leader with 18 stolen bases and has not been caught stealing in 2020. Jones sits 19^th in the country in stolen bases per game (0.69).

SERIES HISTORY
Tomorrow marks the 66^th meeting between Mercer and Georgia Tech. The two squads first met in April 1987. The Bears trail in the series, 18-47, and havenot defeated the Yellow Jackets since April 10, 2013 when they won by a 9-1 score.

SCOUTING THE YELLOW JACKETS
Georgia Tech enters Wednesday's game with an 11-11 record. The Yellow Jackets started Atlantic Coast Conference play last weekend and took 2-of-3 games from the Boston College Eagles. Tech's

Caroline Davis has played in half of the team's games but is hitting .368 (7-for-19) with six RBI. Tricia Awald has started all 22 of her team's contests and has hit at a .290 (18-for-62) clip with 10 RBI and a team-best seven doubles. Crosby Huckaby leads the Yellow Jackets with 13 runs batted in.

In the circle, Blake Neleman is 8-1 with a 1.48 ERA. She has thrown 56.2 innings and has a 3.33:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Neleman leads the ACC with a .162 opposing batting average. Morgan Bruce (3-3) is the only other Yellow Jacket with multiple victories.

Georgia Tech is led Aileen Morales who is in her third head coaching position. Morales was previously the head coach at NCAA Division II Yong Harris (2014, 15) and the Radford Highlanders of the Big South Conference (2016, 17). She is 183-169 as a collegiate head coach and 70-64 with the Yellow Jackets.

Follow the Bears
For complete coverage of Mercer Softball please follow the Bears on social media at @MercerUSoftball (Twitter), /MUSoftball (Facebook) and @MercerUSoftball (Instagram) or visit the official home of Mercer Athletics at MercerBears.com.