Mercer Squares off With Georgia State on Tuesday

Tuesday, May 11

Atlanta, Ga.

6 p.m.

Mercer University

Georgia State

Photo by: Mitch Robinson

Mercer Squares off With Georgia State on Tuesday

5/10/2021 4:57:00 PM | Baseball

Mercer Game Notes

The Bears meet the Panthers for the fourth time this season.

By: Travis Rae

MACON, Ga. – The Mercer baseball team returns to action on Tuesday when it heads to Atlanta to face Georgia State for an in-state showdown. First pitch is set for 6 p.m. from the GSU Baseball Complex.

GAMEDAY LINEUP
Teams: Mercer (30-17) at Georgia State (12-34)
Location: Atlanta, Ga. | GSU Baseball Complex
Tuesday: May 11 | 6 p.m. | Live Stats

Projected Rotations:

Tuesday: RHP Jackson Kelley vs. RHP Trey Horton

Batting Practice

The Bears enter the contest with a 30-17 record and a 15-6 mark in SoCon play. This will be the fourth time the Bears and Panthers have met this season with Mercer winning the first three meetings.
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.
Mercer has hit 77 home runs in 47 games during the 2021 season, the third-most in the nation. Angelo DiSpigna leads the Bears with 13 home runs, while Brandon Michie has 12 and RJ Yeager follows with 11.
Tommy Green led the Bears' pitchers this week as he made three appearances and tallied three wins. He had 12 strikeouts on the week in 12.1 innings pitched.
May 4 was Opening Day for the minor leagues. Mercer has seven former players playing in the minor leagues this season.
Taylor Lobus leads the Bears with seven wins this season, which is tied for the most in the SoCon.
Luke Sutko leads the Southern Conference with eight saves. He also leads the conference in appearances with 24.
The Bears lead the Southern Conference with 101 doubles, which ranks 4th in the NCAA. Fourteen different Bears have hit a double, led by Bill Knight's 14 two-base knocks, which is second most in the SoCon.
Mercer earned a series sweep of Western Carolina this past weekend. The Bears used two comeback wins in the first two games before routing WCU, 14-1, in the final game of the series.
Mercer is one of three teams in the Southern Conference who has tallied 400 or more strikeouts this season. Mercer has 406 on the season and is led by Taylor Lobus who has 58 this season. Mercer has 15 pitchers that have picked up at least one strikeout this season.
Yeager has started every game at shortstop since he arrived on campus as a freshman. He has currently started 187 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. This season, Mercer has won 30 games this season, while Vanderbilt has 34, LSU has 29 and Florida State has 25.
Since 2010, the Bears are the winningest Division I baseball program in the state of Georgia. The Bears have won 424 games, 17 more than Georgia Tech who is second on the list.

Series History
Series: Mercer leads the all-time series, 70-52
First Meeting: 1958 – Mercer 14, Georgia State 2
Last Meeting: 2021 – Mercer 17, Georgia State 4
Streak: W4

Scouting Georgia State
Georgia State enters the contest with the Bears with a 12-34 mark on the season. The last time the Panthers took to the field was on May 2 when they lost to Coastal Carolina, 12-10. This will be the fourth meeting of the season between these two programs. Mercer holds a 3-0 record against them this year.

As a team, the Panthers are hitting .241 with 33 home runs. Josh Smith leads the team with a .306 batting average. He has appeared in 46 games this season and has six home runs. Elian Merejo leads the team with seven home runs and 27 RBI while hitting .240 this season.

The Bears will face Trey Horton on Tuesday night. Horton has made five starts this season and has a record of 0-2 this season. He has posted a 4.70 ERA in 38.1 innings pitched. His last appearance was on May 1 when he threw 1.1 innings against Coastal Carolina.

Dawson Sweatt and Seth Clark lead the team with 18 appearances out of the pen. Sweatt has thrown 28 innings and has an ERA of 4.18. Clark has pitched 23.2 innings and has an ERA of 8.75. The Panthers post an ERA of 6.37 as a team and opponents are hitting .274.

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.