Baseball Breaks Out the Brooms and Sweeps The Citadel

Saturday, April 3

Charleston, S.C.

2 p.m.

Mercer University

15-11, 4-1

The Citadel

8-14, 1-6

Mercer

The Citadel

Photo by: The Citadel Athletics

Baseball Breaks Out the Brooms and Sweeps The Citadel

4/3/2021 11:17:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

Mercer earned a three-game sweep of The Citadel this weekend

By: Travis Rae

CHARLESTON, S.C. – The Mercer baseball team earned a three-game sweep of The Citadel on Saturday by sweeping the Southern Conference doubleheader. Mercer won game one, 6-5, before run-ruling the Bulldogs in game two, 12-2.

Over the two games, Collin Price led the Bears at the plate, going 5-for-9 (.556) on the day with a team-high four RBI. RJ Yeager also hit .500 (4-for-8) on the day. Eleven different Bears picked up a hit in the doubleheader.

Game 1
After a scoreless first inning, the Bears struck first in the top of the second. With one out, Colby Thomas singled through the left side and then stole second base. Jackson Cherry stepped up and worked the count full. After fouling off three pitches, Cherry crushed a two-run bomb to right-center putting Mercer ahead, 2-0.

Tommy Green came out and kept the Bulldogs off balance. After allowing a leadoff single in the second, he got a fly out before Crosby Jones was thrown out trying to steal. With two down, he got Tilo Skole to ground out to end the inning.

Mercer grew the lead to 3-0 in the top of the third inning. With one out, Brandon Michie hit a double and advanced to third on a wild pitch. He came into score on a Garett Delano ground out, putting the Bears ahead by three.

The lead did not last long as The Citadel struck back in the third. After back-to-back strikeouts for Green, the next three hitters picked up hits. The biggest was the three-run home run by Ryan McCarthy, which tied the game.

The game remained tied until the top of the third when the Bears scored a run on a throwing error by the Bulldogs. Again, The Citadel answered right back and tied the game in the bottom of the fifth when Tyler Corbitt picked up an RBI single.

Mercer broke the tie game in the top of the seventh inning. With one out and a runner on second, Delano was intentionally walked. Collin Price followed with his first career triple that scored two, and Mercer took a 6-4 lead.

The Citadel got one back in the bottom of the 8^th inning when pinch hitter Cole Simpson singled home a run. With the game 6-5 in favor of Mercer, the two teams went into the bottom of the ninth. Luke Sutko was dealing as he got the first hitter to strike out swinging and the next hitter to ground out. Sutko got pinch hitter John Lanier to strike out swinging to end the game.

Game 2
The Bears bats came to life early in game two. With one out, RJ Yeager singled putting a runner on. He went advanced to third on a Bulldogs error and scored when Brandon Michie doubled down the right-field line. After the second out of the inning, Price singled to second base, and Michie came around to score on an error by the first baseman to put the Bears ahead, 2-0.

The Citadel threatened in the bottom of the first. After the first two batters were retired, Fred Wilson ran into trouble and the next three hitters reached base and the bases were loaded. However, Wilson settled down and got Simpson to ground out to first.

The Bulldogs got one run back in the bottom of the second. With two outs, The Citadel had three back-to-back-to-back singles with Corbitt's driving in one run.

Following the Bulldogs run, the pitching took over and neither team scored over the next two innings. However, the Bears bats got hot in the fifth inning. Mercer scored four runs on four hits in the frame. With the bases loaded, Price picked up two RBI on a single. Angelo DiSpigna followed with a double to right field that scored the third run of the inning. After a hit-by-pitch loaded the bases, Blake Schmitt drew a bases-loaded walk putting the Bears ahead 6-1.

After a quiet inning for the Bulldogs in the fifth, Mercer again struck for a crooked number in the sixth. Yeager led off with a hit-by-pitch, but it looked as if they would be stranded on base as the next two hitters were retired. Price singled putting two on. DiSpigna, Colby Thomas and Schmitt drew back-to-back-to-back walks, and Mercer scored on Thomas' and Schmitt's walks. Leading 8-1, Trevor Austin picked up an RBI after being hit by a pitch and grew the lead to 9-1. Bill Knight stretched the lead to 11-1 on a single to center field and Yeager, who was up for the second time in the inning, singled to right scoring the 12^th run of the game.

Josh Farmer, who came in to start the third inning, jogged back out to the Mound and retired the Bulldogs in order in the sixth inning. After Mercer couldn't extend the lead in the seventh, Farmer came out and retired the first batter of the inning on a strikeout looking. After a single to Wesley Lane, he went on to steal second base. On the second out of the inning, Lane advance to third base. McCarthy followed with a single that scored Lane. Farmer closed out the game by getting Noah Mitchell to foul out. Mercer took game two 12-2 by run-rule.

Coach Gibson's Take
"I am happy about the last week. Our hitters gave us mature at-bats all week. I'm excited about getting off to a good start in conference play. We will have a great Easter and get ready to start over again on Tuesday at home against Georgia State."

Records Update
» Mercer: 16-11, 5-1 SoCon
» The Citadel: 8-15, 1-7 SoCon

Pitchers of Record
Game 1
» Win: Taylor Lobus (4-2)
» Loss: Devin Beckley (1-3)
» Save: Luke Sutko (4)

Game 2
» Win: Josh Farmer (2-0)
» Loss: Lathan Todd (1-4)

Notables
» Jackson Cherry hit his third home run of the season in the victory in game one.
» Collin Price continued to swing a hot bat for the Bears as he hit .556 over the two games.
» Mercer hit four doubles in the doubleheader sweep. They now have 53 doubles this season.
» Josh Farmer came out of the pen to throw five innings of four-hit ball in game two to earn the victory.
» Delano picked up his third win of the season on Friday night. He went six innings and struck out six.
» Collin Price legged out a triple on the day. This was the first triple of his career.
» Mercer went six-for-six on stolen bases on the day. Colby Thomas and Garett Delano led the way with two each.
» The Bears played clean baseball on Saturday as they did not commit an error.

Up Next
» Mercer: vs. Georgia State (6 p.m. Tuesday, April 6 at OrthoGeorgia Park)
» The Citadel: at College of Charleston (6 p.m. April 6 at The Ballpark at Patriots Point)

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.