Bears Set to Host Mountaineers

MACON, Ga. – The Mercer baseball team returns to OrthoGeorgia Park this weekend when they host West Virginia in a three-game set. The Bears are a perfect 9-0 at home this season.

Friday is Dollar Day at OrthoGeorgia Park. Tickets can be purchased by clicking here, and using the code DollarDay. Once inside the park, hot dogs will be a dollar.

GAMEDAY LINEUP
Teams: Mercer (11-1) vs. West Virginia (8-4)
Location: Macon, Ga. | OrthoGeorgia Park
Friday: March 6 | 6 p.m. | Live Stats
Saturday: March 7 | 2 p.m. | Live Stats
Sunday: March 8 | 1 p.m. | Live Stats

Projected Rotations:

Friday: LHP Tanner Hall vs. LHP Jackson Wolf
Saturday: RHP Jackson Kelley vs. RHP Ryan Bergert
Sunday: RHP Taylor Lobus vs. LHP Jake Carr

Batting Practice

The Bears dropped their first game of the season on Tuesday night with a 9-8 loss in extra innings to No. 11 Florida State.
Mercer showed off its power at Florida State by hitting four home runs. Freshman Colby Thomas hit two of the four home runs for the Bears.
Thomas leads Mercer with five home runs. This is the 16th best mark in the country for an individual player. The freshman home run mark at Mercer is 17, which was set during the 2018 season by Le Bassett.
The Bears have hit 14 home runs this season, which is the 22nd most in the NCAA. Six different Bears have sent a ball over the outfield fence. Thomas leads the team with five and Brandon Michie follows with three bombs.
Mercer has been hit by 23 pitches this season, including being hit by six in the series finale against Radford. The 23 hit by pitches ranks 22nd among all NCAA Division I squads.
Mercer has a team batting average of .302 on the season, which is 30th best in the nation. The Bears have seven players with an average of .340 or better.
The Bears hold a 4.56 strikeout-to-walk ratio, which is the sixth best in the country.
Tanner Hall has picked up three wins this season. His three wins rank him third in the NCAA. Besides wins, Hall ranks 25th in the country in strikeouts with 29 on the season. The most strikeouts he has had in a single season at Mercer was 66, which was set last year.
Mercer is one of just four NCAA Division I programs to win at least 35 games in each of the past 10 seasons, joining LSU, Florida State and Vanderbilt.
Since 2010, the Bears are the winningest Division I baseball program in the state of Georgia. The Bears have won 392 games.
The Bears were picked to finish third in the Southern Conference Preseason Coaches' Poll. Mercer tallied one first place vote and 51 points.
Le Bassett was the only Bear to earn First Team Preseason All-SoCon honors. He earned his spot as a DH. Angelo DiSpigna, RJ Yeager and Collin Price were named to the second team.

Series History

Series: Mercer leads, 4-3
First Meeting: 3/7/1975 (WVU won, 8-2)
Last Meeting: 3/8/1992 (WVU won, 7-4)
Streak: Mercer Lost 1

Scouting West Virginia
West Virginia enters the weekend series with the Bears holding an 8-4 mark on the season. The Mountaineers are coming off a midweek win over Kent State, where WVU threw a combined no-hitter winning 8-0. West Virginia is 4-3 on the road.

At the plate, Braden Zarbnisky leads the team with a .471 batting average. He has an on-base percentage of 509 on the season. Zarbnisky has 24 hits this season with 20 being singles. Paul McIntosh leads the team with 13 RBI on the season. McIntosh is hitting .200. Kevin Brophy leads the team with three home runs. As a team, the Mountaineers are hitting .287 and have an on-base percentage of .357. West Virginia is 28-of-32 on stolen base attempts.

On the mound, the Mountaineers have an ERA of 3.03 and have recorded 104 strikeouts this season. Opponents are hitting .187 off the Mountaineers staff. WVU is averaging one strikeout per inning. Leading the pitchers is Jackson Wolf. The lefty pitcher has tossed 19.0 innings this season and has 20 strikeouts compared to four walks. Wolf will start on Friday night. Saturday, Ryan Bergert takes the mound and he is 2-0 on the season with an ERA of 2.75. Sunday, Jake Carr takes the bump. he is 2-1 with 19 innings pitched and an ERA of 1.89.

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.

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Players Mentioned

Le Bassett

Angelo DiSpigna

Tanner Hall

Jackson Kelley

Taylor Lobus

Brandon Michie

Collin Price

Colby Thomas

RJ Yeager

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