Mercer Drops Saturday Showdown

Saturday, May 7

Cullowhee, NC

4 P.M.

Mercer University

35-11, 9-5

Western Carolina University

23-23, 7-7

Mercer

Western Carolina

Photo by: Mitch Robinson

5/7/2022 7:16:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

Bears fall to Western Carolina

CULLOWHEE, N.C. – Western Carolina took advantage of three Mercer errors and collected 17 hits on its way to a 15-5 victory in the middle game of the Southern Conference series Saturday at Hennon Stadium.

The Catamounts (23-23, 7-7 SoCon) racked up eight extra-base hits, including six doubles and a pair of home runs, to clinch the set.

Western Carolina built an 8-1 advantage through four innings before the Bears (35-11, 9-5 SoCon) scored three times in the fifth to pull within four runs. However, the Catamounts answered in the bottom of the stanza with two runs to push the lead to 10-4.

Western Carolina added another tally in the sixth and four more in the seventh to pull away.

Pascanel Ferreras and Immanuel Wilder posted three hits apiece to pace the Catamounts at the plate. Ferreras drove in three, as did Bryson Parks.

Mercer trailed 2-0 in the top of the third when Jozsef Rohrbacher belted a solo shot over the wall in right field.

Rohrbacher also led off the fifth with a double and later scored on Bill Knight's single. The Bears plated two more runs on a Collin Price double to left field.

Rohrbacher scored the final run for the Bears in the ninth on a throwing error.

Mercer had 11 hits on the day. Rohrbacher was 4 for 4 with a double and his sixth home run of the spring.

Gavin Mortenson (4-7) earned the win on the mound for Western Carolina. Mortenson struck out nine, walked one and scattered seven hits in 6.0 innings.

Josh Farmer (5-1) was handed his first loss of the campaign, as he yielded eight runs (seven earned) in 3.1 frames.

The series is scheduled to conclude at 1 p.m. Sunday.