Mercer Hosts The Citadel in SoCon Action

MACON, Ga. – The Mercer baseball team opens up its last home stand of the season on Friday when it takes on The Citadel at 6 p.m. at OrthoGeorgia Park. The three-game set is a Southern Conference matchup.

On Saturday, prior to the first game, Mercer will honor it senior class.

GAMEDAY LINEUP
Teams: Mercer (31-17, 15-6 SoCon) vs. The Citadel (11-33, 3-20 SoCon)
Location: Macon, Ga. | OrthoGeorgia Park
Friday: May 14 | 6 p.m. | Live Stats | Watch
Saturday (G1): May 15 | 2 p.m. | Live Stats | Watch
Saturday (G2): May 15 | 6 p.m. | Live Stats | Watch

Projected Rotations:

Friday: RHP Garett Delano vs. RHP Jake Pilarski
Saturday (G1): RHP Josh Farmer vs. RHP Cameron Reeves
Saturday (G2): TBA vs. RHP Lathan Todd

Batting Practice

The Bears enter the contest with a 31-17 record and a 15-6 mark in SoCon play. This will be the second series between these two teams. Mercer swept the three game sets in early April in Charleston.
Garett Delano was named to the John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Year Award watch list. This award is selected by the College Baseball Foundation. Delano is the only player from the Southern Conference on the list.
Mercer has hit 78 home runs in 48 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 last 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 eight wins this season, which is tied for the most in the SoCon.
Luke Sutko leads the Southern Conference with nine saves. His nine saves are the eighth-most in the NCAA. He also leads the conference in appearances with 25.
The Bears lead the Southern Conference with 103 doubles, which ranks third in the NCAA. Fourteen different Bears have hit a double, led by Bill Knight's 15 two-base knocks, which leads the SoCon.
Mercer has won its last six games and 10 of its last 11. The only loss during this stretch was to ETSU on May 1^st, which also the Orange & Black's only loss in May.
Mercer is one of three teams in the Southern Conference who has tallied 400 or more strikeouts this season. Mercer has 418 on the season, which is second-best in the SoCon. Lobus leads the team with 62. 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 188 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 31 games this season, while Vanderbilt has 35, LSU has 30 and Florida State has 26.
Since 2010, the Bears are the winningest Division I baseball program in the state of Georgia. The Bears have won 425 games, 18 more than Georgia Tech which is second on the list.

Series History
Series: Mercer leads the all-time series, 22-14
First Meeting: 1959 –The Citadel 6, Mercer 3
Last Meeting: 2021 – Mercer 12, The Citadel 2
Streak: W5

Scouting The Citadel
The Citadel enters the weekend SoCon set with the Bears with a mark of 11-33 on the season and 3-20 in conference play. The Bulldogs have lost their last 13 games with the last win coming on April 17 against ETSU. This will be the second time these two teams have met with Mercer sweeping The Citadel in Charleston in early April.

As a team, the Bulldogs are hitting .272 with 69 doubles and 29 home runs. Jeffery Brown leads the way with an average of .322 on the season, and Crosby Jones follows with a .304 average. Ray McCarthy has the third-best average, hitting .294, but leads the team with eight home runs and 31 RBI.

The pitching staff for The Citadel has a 6.70 ERA in 378.2 innings pitched this season. Mercer will face Jake PIlarski (2-2, 6.24 ERA), Cameron Reeves (3-9, 5.96 ERA) and Lathan Todd (2-7, 6.95 ERA) to start the contests. Pilarski leads the team with 75 innings pitched this season.

Devin Beckley leads the team with 26 appearances, four being starts. Beckley has pitched 44 innings and tallied a strikeout per inning. He is 1-6 on the season and holds a 6.14 ERA. Chance Cooper is second on the team with 22 appearances out of the pen. He has pitched 28 innings and holds a 1-0 record. Cooper has 25 strikeouts on the season but has issued 20 walks.

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

Josh Farmer

Tommy Green

Bill Knight

Taylor Lobus

Brandon Michie

Luke Sutko

RJ Yeager

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