Bears Travel for Conference Series at VMI

Friday, April 21

Lexington, VA

2 p.m.

Mercer University

Virginia Military Institute

Carter Sanford fixing his glove while holding his bat under his arm

4/20/2023 5:40:00 PM | Baseball

By: KC Wetherington

LEXINGTON, Va. – The Mercer baseball program (24-15, 6-3) will play its fourth Southern Conference series of the season against VMI (20-17, 5-3) beginning on Friday, April 21. Due to inclement weather, the teams will play a doubleheader on Friday starting at 2 p.m. Both games will be nine innings, and the second game will start 30 minutes after the conclusion of the first game. There will be no game on Saturday. Sunday's game is currently unchanged and will start at 1 p.m.

FRIDAY, April 21 | 2 p.m. (DH)
MER: LHP Colton Cosper (3-2, 4.09 ERA)
VMI: LHP Nathan Light (2-1, 4.91 ERA)
ESPN+ | LIVE STATS

FRIDAY, April 21 | 30 mins after conclusion of game 1 (DH)
MER: RHP Josh Farmer (4-2, 4.62 ERA)
VMI: RHP Will Riley (3-2, 9.30 ERA)
ESPN+ | LIVE STATS

SUNDAY, April 23 | 1 p.m.
MER: RHP Ryan Lobus (4-3, 5.60 ERA)
VMI: TBA
ESPN+ | LIVE STATS

The last matchup between the two teams was a three-game series last season that the Bears won 2-1. The last game of the series went 13 innings and ended with a walk off single for the Bears. Mercer leads the all-time series with the Keydets, 21-9.

SCOUTING VMI
The Keydets are coming off a three-game series win against SIUE, 2-1, and a midweek loss against Old Dominion, 11-6. VMI's five wins in the conference were earned against Wofford (1), UNCG (2), and Western Carolina (2).

The team lost the first game of the series against SIUE 5-0 with Andrew Jones on the mound to start. Jones gave up four hits and five runs in the first inning before Nathan Hawley who got out of the inning without letting the game get any worse. On Saturday, the Keydets defeated SIUE 13-3 in just eight innings as Nathan Light picked up his second win of the season. In the second game of Saturday's doubleheader, Will Riley struck out 10 batters and allowed no earned runs which secured him Southern Conference Pitcher of the Week.

VMI leads the country in stolen bases with 147 on 178 attempts. The Keydets also rank third in the nation in batting average at .331. The Institute has hit the second-most doubles in the country with 96 this season.

RECENT ACTION
Mercer recently swept ETSU in the SoCon series last weekend and suffered a seven-inning defeat, 13-3, against Georgia State on Wednesday.

Colton Cosper claimed the win after going for 6.2 innings on the first night of the series, only giving up two runs and striking out five Bucs. Wesley Franklin came in to close the game in the eighth inning and clinched his eighth save of the season. The Bears only needed seven innings on Saturday to take the second game with Josh Farmer starting on the mound and lasting the entire game. In the sixth inning, Eric Toth hit a grand slam over the left field wall which was the second grand slam of the day for Mercer after Jozsef Rohrbacher hit one earlier. Toth homered two more times in the final game on Sunday. Ryan Lobus took the win after going 7.2 innings.

Fred Wilson started on the mound against Georgia State on Wednesday and went for three innings, letting up six hits and two runs. Carter Sanford hit a three-run homer in the top of the second inning which would be the only set of runs for the night.

IN THE NUMBERS

Trevor Austin ranks seventh in Division I among active players for games played (218) and 28th for hits (222).
Mercer is fourth in the nation for fielding percentage at .984. The national leader currently sits at .985, and only 21 schools in Division I are fielding .980 or above.
The Bears have turned 34 double plays this season which ranks eighth in Division I.
Treyson Hughes ranks 20th in Division I and first in the SoCon for runs scored with 46.
Wes Franklin ranks fifth in Division I and first in the SoCon for saves with eight this season.

FOLLOW THE BEARS:
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