Bears Cruise Past Florida A&M For 8th Straight Win

Wednesday, February 26

Macon, Ga.

4 p.m.

Mercer University

8-1

Florida A&M

2-7

Florida A&M

Mercer

Bears Cruise Past Florida A&M For 8th Straight Win

2/26/2025 7:50:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

By: Donovan Schultz, donovan.schultz@live.mercer.edu

MACON – Mercer shortstop Bradley Frye continued to tear the cover off the baseball and Bryce Hawkins dominated on the mound to help the Bears pick up their eighth straight victory on Wednesday, defeating Florida A&M by a score of 9-2 at OrthoGeorgia Park.

Frye (2-for-3, 5 RBI) had his fifth consecutive multi-hit game and launched a grand slam, while Ty Dalley (1-for-4, 3 RBI) homered for the second game in a row to power the Bears at the plate. Hawkins (1-0) earned his first win as a Bear with five shutout innings in relief, striking out three. Blake Pacheco (0-1) took the loss for Florida A&M.

As was the case on Tuesday night, the Rattlers and Bears started Wednesday's game off slow at the plate. Ford Thompson got his first career start for Mercer and worked a scoreless inning in the first before running into trouble in the second. With men on first and second and nobody out, Hawkins entered and promptly threw out the lead runner at third on a bunt before inducing a 4-6-3 double play to get out of the inning.

After another quick inning from Hawkins in the top of the third, the Bears mounted a two-out rally in the home half. Freshman Cade Norton - serving as the Bears' catcher in his first career start - got things going with his first collegiate hit, a hard-hit single. From there, the Bears used free bases to get on the board, as a walk from Ely Brown and consecutive HBPs from Frye and Dalley allowed Norton to score.

Mercer broke things open in the fourth inning, putting up a five-spot for their fourth five-run inning of the season. After Brown drew the Bears' second bases loaded HBP of the game to bring home a run, Frye continued his other-worldly stretch by launching a grand slam off of the pitch clock in center field to make the score 6-0.

Both offenses would go quiet for the next couple of innings, with Hawkins continuing to mow down the Rattlers' lineup before giving way to Jeb Johnson in the seventh. After Johnson put up a zero, the Bears put up two more runs in the bottom of the inning on a moonshot two-run home run to right from Dalley. The titanic blast was his fourth of the season, tying him with Frye for the team lead.

Working with an 8-0 lead, Kai Decker came on to pitch in the top of the eighth and retired the side on just 10 pitches. In the bottom of the inning, Frye recorded his fifth RBI of the night with a bases loaded walk, scoring Braydon Kersey. Kersey served as the Bears' designated hitter in the contest and collected the first two hits of his career.

The Rattlers spoiled the shutout in the top of the ninth, scoring twice before Craig Kalkbrenner came on to finish it off.

The Bears look for their ninth consecutive win on Friday when they host High Point in a battle of 8-1 teams. First pitch is set for 6 p.m. at OrthoGeorgia Park. The Bears will host Florida A&M on Saturday at 4 p.m. before closing the weekend with another home matchup against High Point on Sunday at 1 p.m. Fans can get their tickets ahead of time and skip the line by visiting MercerBears.com/Tickets.