Rutgers Wins Defensive Battle Over Mercer

Sunday, March 19

Macon, Ga.

12 p.m.

Mercer University

14-7

Rutgers University

10-8

Rutgers

Mercer

Josh Farmer on the follow through of a pitch

3/19/2023 3:56:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

Five combined runs tie a season-low for Mercer

By: KC Wetherington

MACON, Ga. – The Mercer baseball program (14-7) dropped the rubber match against Rutgers (10-8), 3-2, on Sunday afternoon at OrthoGeorgia Park.

The game started slow, and the Bears did not get on the board until the sixth inning when Jackson Cherry doubled to the right field wall, breaking Jake Marshall's no-hitter. Cherry's hit brought Bradley Frye across the plate after he was hit by a pitch to start off the inning. Mercer scored its other run when Jozsef Rohrbacher reached home on a throwing error by the Scarlet Knights while trying to turn a double play.

The Bears battled in the ninth inning and almost found a breakthrough. After Max Kops was walked, Carter Geier hit a blooper to shallow center, putting Kops in scoring position with the possibility to tie the game with just one out. However, Rutgers took the game and the series with two final strikeouts.

Josh Farmer started on the mound and went for six innings. Farmer let up three runs and struck out seven batters before Colton Cosper entered in relief in the top of the seventh. Cosper, Jaxon O'Neal and Garrett Sloan closed out the game, each pitching one inning and each facing only three batters while not allowing the Scarlet Knights to score.

SCORING SUMMARY
T2| Mercer 0, Rutgers 1                Brito homered to right center.
T4| Mercer 0, Rutgers 2                Sweeney flied out to right field, scoring Cohen.
T4| Mercer 0, Rutgers 3                Sleight singled to center field, scoring Kuroda-Grauer.
B6| Mercer 1, Rutgers 3               Cherry doubled to right field, scoring Frye.
B6| Mercer 2, Rutgers 3               Rohrbacher scored on throwing error.

UP NEXT: Mercer will host a rematch against Georgia Southern on Wednesday, March 22 at 6 p.m. at OrthoGeorgia Park.

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