No. 2 Mercer to Begin SoCon Tournament on Friday

Thursday, May 25

Greenville, S.C.

7:30 p.m.

Mercer University

Wofford College

No. 2 Mercer to Begin SoCon Tournament on Friday

5/24/2023 1:32:00 PM | Baseball

By: Amanda Cover

GREENVILLE, S.C. – The Mercer baseball program will play its opening game in the Southern Conference Baseball Championship presented by Holston Gases on Friday, May 26 at 12:30 p.m. at Fluor Field in Greenville, South Carolina.

FRIDAY, May 26 | 12:30 p.m.
Fluor Field | Greenville, S.C. | TICKETS
ESPN+ | LIVE STATS

This is the second-straight year the Bears earned the No. 2 seed in the tournament. Mercer will face either No. 3 Wofford, No. 6 UNCG, or No. 7 Western Carolina. During the regular season, Mercer swept Wofford, won two games against UNCG, and took one game from WCU. The Bears will learn their opponent in the game on Thursday, May 25 at 7 p.m.

All games will be broadcast live on ESPN+. The tournament winner earns the league's automatic bid to a NCAA Baseball Regional. The full bracket and tournament information can be found here.

TOURNAMENT HISTORY
The Bears are searching for the third SoCon tournament title in program history and the first since 2019. Mercer won in 2019 as the fourth seed after winning its first SoCon Championship in 2015 as the No. 1 overall seed. The top seed has only won the SoCon tournament five times since 2000 while the No. 2 seed has won it six times in the same span.

Mercer is 18-11 in the tournament since joining the league in 2015. The Bears are a combined 6-4 against the possible opponents in tournament history, going 2-1 against Wofford, 3-2 against Western Carolina, and 1-1 against UNCG.

SEASON RECAP
Mercer finished 32-23 overall and 13-8 in the conference. The Bears won all but two conference series this season and also earned series wins over William & Mary, Bellarmine, Baylor, and CSUN.

Six players earned All-Southern Conference honors led by Treyson Hughes who was named to the Coaches and Media First Team. Eric Toth was selected for the Coaches First Team and Media Second Team. Jozsef Rohrbacher earned Second Team honors from the Coaches and Media. Josh Farmer and Jackson Cherry each secured a spot on the Media Second Team while Ty Dalley was added to the Coaches All-Freshman Team.

Three players were named to the Collegiate Baseball National Player of the Week list during the season: Carter Sanford, Rohrbacher, and Toth. Sanford and Toth were also selected as SoCon Player of the Week along with Jackson Cherry. Three pitchers, Josh Harlow, Josh Farmer, and Colton Cosper, were named SoCon Pitcher of the Week.

With the win over Western Carolina on March 31, Craig Gibson became the winningest coach in Mercer baseball history, recording his 649^th career win. Gibson and Barry Myers are the only Mercer coaches to achieve at least 600 wins.

IN THE NUMBERS

Mercer ranks eighth in Division I and first in the SoCon in home runs with 108 this season. This equates to 1.96 homers per game.
Eric Toth ranks second in the Southern Conference in home runs with 19. Jozsef Rohrbacher is third with 18, and Ty Dalley is fourth with 17.
Mercer is 21st in Division I for fielding percentage at .979.
Treyson Hughes ranks 14th in Division I and second in the SoCon for runs scored with 69. He also has the third-best on-base percentage in the SoCon at .494.
Wesley Franklin ranks 39th in Division I and second in the SoCon for saves with eight this season.
Ryan Lobus has struck out the fifth-most batters of all SoCon pitchers this season with 74 K's.
Colton Cosper has struck out the fourth-most batters looking among SoCon pitchers with 21.
Treyson Hughes and Jozsef Rohrbacher are the top two players in the conference in walks with 43 and 38, respectively.
Ty Dalley ranks second in the SoCon for fielding double plays with 37.
Trevor Austin ranks 11th in Division I among active players for games played (233) and 38th for hits (236).

CHAMPIONSHIP SCHEDULE
May 24 (Wednesday)
SoCon Championship presented by Holston Gases (ESPN+)
(Fluor Field; Greenville, S.C.)
Game 1: #5 VMI vs. #8 The Citadel, 3 p.m.
Game 2: #6 UNCG vs. #7 Western Carolina, 7 p.m.

May 25 (Thursday)
SoCon Championship presented by Holston Gases (ESPN+)
(Fluor Field; Greenville, S.C.)
Game 3: Winner Game 1 vs. #4 ETSU, 3 p.m.
Game 4: Winner Game 2 vs. #3 Wofford, 7 p.m.

May 26 (Friday)
SoCon Championship presented by Holston Gases (ESPN+)
(Fluor Field; Greenville, S.C.)
Game 5: Winner Game 3 vs. #1 Samford, 9 a.m.
Game 6: Winner Game 4 vs. #2 Mercer, 12:30 p.m.
Game 7: Loser Game 4 vs. Loser Game 5, 4 p.m.
Game 8: Loser Game 3 vs. Loser Game 6, 7:30 p.m.

May 27 (Saturday)
SoCon Championship presented by Holston Gases (ESPN+)
(Fluor Field; Greenville, S.C.)
Game 9: Winner Game 5 vs. Winner Game 6, 12 p.m.
Game 10: Winner Game 7 vs. Winner Game 8, 3:30 p.m.
Game 11: Winner Game 10 vs. Loser Game 9, 7 p.m.

May 28 (Sunday)
SoCon Championship presented by Holston Gases (SDN)
Fluor Field; Greenville, S.C.)
Game 12: Winner Game 9 vs. Winner Game 11, 12 p.m.
Game 13: Game 12 winner vs. Game 12 loser^, 40 minutes after Game 12
^ if necessary

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.