Georgia Southern Tops Mercer

Tuesday, February 28

Statesboro, GA

6 p.m.

Mercer University

5-4

Georgia Southern University

5-3

Mercer

Georgia Southern

2/28/2023 9:37:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

Teams meet in Macon on March 22

By: Amanda Cover

STATESBORO, Ga. – The Mercer baseball program (5-4) fell to Georgia Southern (5-3), 11-0, on Tuesday evening at J.I. Clements Stadium. The Bears will face the Eagles again at home on Wednesday, March 22.

Georgia Southern took an early lead after three runs in the first. Jarrett Brown hit his first home run of the season in the fourth to increase the Eagles' lead to six. GSU added more runs in the fifth and six through small ball plays. The Eagles capped it off with the 11^th run in the eighth.

Holton McGaha entered in relief of Garrett Sloan (0-1) in the second inning with runners on the corners and struck out Noah Ledford to get the Bears out of trouble. McGaha added four more strikeouts to lead the bullpen with five after 1.2 innings pitched.

Wesley Franklin pitched the next 1.2 innings and also worked his way out of a dangerous situation, striking out Luke Hatcher for the final out in the fourth, stranding three for the Eagles. Walt Thomas earned three-straight strikeouts in the seventh inning. The pitching staff struck out a combined 15 batters.

As a pinch hitter in the ninth, Sam Stewart hit his first double of the season and advanced to third, but the Bears could not string together enough hits to plate Stewart.

SCORING SUMMARY
B1 | Mercer 0, Georgia Southern 1           Blancato scored on a wild pitch.
B1 | Mercer 0, Georgia Southern 3           Kaiser singled up the middle, scoring Faulk and Ledford.
B2 | Mercer 0, Georgia Southern 4           Blancato singled to right center, scoring Peacher (unearned).
B4 | Mercer 0, Georgia Southern 6           Brown homered down the left field line, scoring Sherrill.
B5 | Mercer 0, Georgia Southern 7           Evans scored on a throwing error.
B5 | Mercer 0, Georgia Southern 8           Brown flied out to right field, scoring Peacher.
B6 | Mercer 0, Georgia Southern 9           Ledford scored on a fielder's choice.
B6 | Mercer 0, Georgia Southern 10        Evans flied out to center field, scoring Faulk.
B8 | Mercer 0, Georgia Southern 11        Noblitt grounded out to shortstop, scoring Hultgren.

UP NEXT: Mercer will host its third consecutive home weekend series against Bellarmine beginning on Friday, March 3 at 6 p.m.