Bears Record Second Consecutive Shutout To Take Series Opener Over Southern

Friday, March 7

Macon, Ga.

6 p.m.

Mercer University

11-3

Southern

6-5

Southern

Mercer

Bears Record Second Consecutive Shutout To Take Series Opener Over Southern

3/7/2025 9:13:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

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

MACON – The Mercer baseball team recorded their second consecutive shutout for the first time since 2022 to take Friday's series opener, defeating Southern by a score of 6-0 at OrthoGeorgia Park.

Colton Cosper (2-1) turned in his second dominant start in a row, tossing seven shutout innings with five strikeouts and no walks to get the win, while Craig Kalkbrenner finished off the shutout with two scoreless frames of his own out of the bullpen. Titan Kamaka (1-for-3) returned to the lineup for the first time in two weeks and blasted a two-run home run and Ty Dalley (2-for-4) and Drew Johnson (2-for-3) delivered multi-hit performances to lead the Bears at the plate.

The game began with both starters rolling through the first two innings, as a pair of Mercer singles provided the only base runners in the early going. In the third inning, the Jaguars were able to muster their first base hit of the game, but Cosper worked around it to post his third zero of the night.

In the bottom of the third, the Mercer offense got the offense going for a big inning. After a walk and an error put runners on the corners, Dalley got the scoring started with a single into right field to score Michael Graziano. With runners still at the corners, Parker Lester stepped in and made a productive out, driving in Ely Brown with a ground ball to second base. Now with two outs in the inning, Brant Baughcum kept it rolling with a base hit and Dalley came around to score to make it 3-0. In the next-at bat, Kamaka put an exclamation point on the inning with his first home run as a Bear, driving a two-run bomb out to left field to push the lead to five.

Cosper went back to work following the crooked number from his offense, needing only 29 pitches to get through the next three innings, including a five-pitch inning in the sixth. However, the left-hander finally ran into trouble in the seventh, as the Jaguars strung together three singles in a row to load the bases with nobody out. Cosper struck out the next batter for the first out of the inning before inducing a 4-6-3 double play to escape the jam, putting a bow on a masterful performance and running his scoreless inning streak to 12.

Kalkbrenner took over on the mound in the eighth, striking out a pair while stranding runners on first and third to keep the shutout alive. In the bottom of the eighth, the Bears generated a two-out rally when Kamaka drew a walk and pinch-runner David Falloon stole second. Johnson stepped up to the dish in the next at-bat and came through with a single, scoring Falloon to make the score 6-0.

Kalkbrenner came back out for the ninth and rolled a 6-4-3 double play to end it, marking the 19^th straight scoreless inning for the Mercer pitching staff.

The Bears return to OrthoGeorgia Park tomorrow for game two of the series at 2 p.m. Fans can get their tickets ahead of time by visiting MercerBears.com/Tickets.