Mercer Heads to Georgia Southern

MACON, Ga. – Mercer baseball heads to Georgia Southern in a midweek contest on Wednesday evening. The Bears are looking to extend their seven-game winning streak.

GAMEDAY LINEUP
Teams: Mercer (20-11, 8-1 SoCon) at Georgia Southern (17-13, 7-5 Sun Belt)
Location: Statesboro, Ga. | J.I. Clements Stadium
Wednesday: April 14 | 6 p.m. | Live Stats | Watch

Projected Rotations:

Wednesday: RHP Jackson Kelley vs. RHP Jaylen Paden

Batting Practice

The Bears enter the contest with a 20-11 record and an 8-1 mark in SoCon play. Mercer is looking to extend its seven game-winning streak.
Last Tuesday, Garett Delano was named to the John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Year Award watch list. This award is named by the College Baseball Foundation. Delano is the only player from the Southern Conference on the list.
RJ Yeager was named a candidate for the Senior CLASS Award. The award is for a student-athlete who excel both on and off the field and must have achievements in four areas of excellence: community, classroom, character and competition.
Mercer has hit 40 home runs in 31 games during the 2021 season. The 40 home runs rank 16^th in the nation. Brandon Michie leads the team with eight home runs.
The Orange & Black enter the midweek contest with Georgia Southern on a seven-game winning streak. During this stretch, Mercer has a team batting average of .339. Bill Knight leads the team in batting average over this span hitting .500.
The Bears lead the Southern Conference with 64 doubles, which ranks 14th in the NCAA. Thirteen different Bears have hit a double, and the team is led by Angelo DiSpigna and Bill Knight's 10 two-base knocks.
RJ Yeager has started every game at shortstop since he arrived on campus as a freshman. He has currently started 171 consecutive games.
Mercer was picked to finish second in the 2021 Preseason SoCon Coaches and Media Polls. The Bears were picked behind Samford in both polls.
Mercer is one of just four NCAA Division I programs to win at least 35 games in each of the past 10 full 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 401 games, seven more than Georgia Tech who is second on the list.

Series History
Series: Georgia Southern leads the all-time series, 75-26
First Meeting: 1960 – Georgia Southern 7, Mercer 6
Last Meeting: 2019 – Georgia Southern 7, Mercer 3
Streak: L2

Scouting Georgia Southern
The Eagles of Georgia Southern enter their midweek contests with a record of 17-13 on the season. Prior to playing Mercer on Wednesday, the Eagles square off with North Florida on Tuesday night. Georgia Southern has won four straight, with the first win of the streak against Georgia on April 6.

As a team, the Eagles are hitting .294 on the season and have an on base percentage of .378. The Eagles have hit 61 doubles this season and 29 home runs. Leaidng the way is Mason McWhorter, who is hitting .395 on the season with 10 doubles, eight home runs and is second on the team with 25 RBI. Parker Biederer is second on the team hitting .340. Six different Eagles are hitting .300 or better on the year.

Georgia Southern as a team has an ERA of 3.77 in 269.2 innings pitched. They have tallied 320 strikeouts, 14^th best in the nation. Wednesday starter, Jaylen Paden comes into the midweek contest with a record of 1-2 on the season with an ERA of 4.58. Paden has pitched 17.2 innings and has 20 strikeouts.

Nick Jones leads the team in appearances this season as he has made 16 and thrown 24.0 innings. He has an ERA of 0.75 with 44 strikeouts to only four walks. Jacob Parker is second on the team with 12 appearances. He has pitched 15 innings and has an ERA of 6.00.

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

Garett Delano

Angelo DiSpigna

Jackson Kelley

Bill Knight

Brandon Michie

RJ Yeager

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