Bears Shut Down Bucs, Take Game One Of Series

Thursday, April 17

Macon, Ga.

6 p.m.

Mercer University

25-15, 6-4

East Tennessee State

25-11, 6-4

East Tennessee State

Mercer

Bears Shut Down Bucs, Take Game One Of Series

4/17/2025 9:17:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

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

MACON  –  Mercer pitching limited one of the country's top offenses to one run while the bats blasted three home runs to take game one of a crucial SoCon series, defeating ETSU by a score of 5-1 on Thursday night.

Ty Dalley (2-for-4), Drew Johnson (1-for-3) and Eli Stephens (1-for-3) each homered to lead the Bears at the plate. Colton Cosper (5-1) was excellent on the mound, tossing six innings of one-run ball to get the win, while Andrew Garnett and Terry Busse locked it down in the late innings to secure the win. Carter Fink (6-2) took the loss for ETSU.

HOW IT HAPPENED

For the third game in a row, the Mercer offense got out of the gates hot with a run in the first inning. Ty Dalley did the honors this time, hammering a line drive home run out to right field at 109 MPH off the bat to give the Bears an early lead.

After a 10-pitch, 1-2-3 inning from Cosper in the second, the lefty got some help from his defense in the third inning as center fielder Ely Brown gunned down a runner at third to end the inning.

The Bears added to their lead in the fourth, with Brant Baughcum extending his hitting streak to six with a leadoff single before coming around to score on an RBI single from Bradley Frye.

ETSU responded in the top of the fifth, scratching across a run on a pair of doubles to cut the Mercer lead in half. However, Drew Johnson was quick to answer, following up a sliding catch for the third out in the top half of the inning with a first pitch home run in the bottom of the frame. The moonshot home run was his third of the year and made the score 3-1 in favor of Mercer.

Cosper finished his night in the sixth, striking out two in another clean inning. On the night, Cosper allowed just one run on five hits, walking one and striking out five.

Garnett took over for Cosper in the seventh and posted two scoreless frames of his own to keep the Bucs at bay. In the eighth, Bradley Frye showed off his arm with a missile from deep in the hole at short, beating the Bucs' baserunner by half a step at first base for the third out.

Still clinging to a two-run lead, the Mercer offense came through with some much-needed insurance in the bottom of the inning.  Freshman Eli Stephens continued his hot streak with a solo bomb to lead off the inning, marking his sixth straight game with an RBI. Following the home run, Brown got on base with a bunt single before Dalley drilled a double to right center field to drive him in. The RBI was Dalley's team-leading 50^th of the season.

Looking to finish off the win, Terry Busse entered in the ninth and did just that, working around a leadoff walk to secure a 5-1 win. Following Thursday's result, Mercer and ETSU both sit at 6-4 in SoCon play to put them 1.5 games behind league-leading UNCG.

UP NEXT

Mercer and ETSU will lock horns again tomorrow night at OrthoGeorgia Park for a 6 p.m. first pitch before wrapping up the series on Saturday at 1 p.m. Fans can purchase tickets ahead of time at Mercerbears.com/tickets.