Bears Fall Late To Wofford

Saturday, May 3

Spartanburg, S.C.

2 p.m.

Mercer University

30-19, 9-8

Wofford

27-21, 5-9

Mercer

Wofford

5/3/2025 6:44:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

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

SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Ty Dalley tied the Mercer career home run record with his 56^th career home run on Saturday, but the Bears fell to Wofford in the late innings by a score of 6-5.

Dalley (2-for-4) hit his 17^th home run of the season, while Zack Thompson (1-for-3) hit a three-run home run to lead the Bears offensively. Braydon Kersey (2-4) took the loss, while Carter Rasmussen (4-2) got the win for Wofford.

HOW IT HAPPENED

For the second game in a row, Wofford took the lead in the first inning, scoring three runs to go up 3-0. However, the Bears responded, as Thompson launched a three-run home run to left field with two outs to tie things up. In the next-at bat, Michael Graziano doubled off the wall in left before Brant Baughcum singled through the left side of the infield to drive him in, giving the Bears a 4-3 lead.

In the bottom of the second, the Terriers put the first two men on base to force a Mercer pitching change. Craig Kalkbrenner entered from the bullpen and worked out of the inning, getting help from Baughcum at third on a 5-2 putout to nab a Wofford runner at home.

Dalley made history in the top of the third, taking a 1-1 pitch the other way for a line drive home run. The home run put Dalley atop the Mercer career home run leaderboard with Tim Smith, who hit 56 homers for the Bears from 1980-83.

In the bottom of the third, Wofford got a run back on an RBI single to make the score 5-4.

During the top of the fourth inning, a weather delay forced the teams off the field. Following an approximately 40-minute stoppage, play resumed at 4:05 p.m.

Jackson Gaspard came in to pitch for the Bears following a leadoff walk in the bottom of the fourth and used a strikeout and a double play to escape a bases loaded jam. Now on offense, the Bears loaded the bases themselves in the top of the fifth, but Wofford used a double play of their own to get out of the inning without allowing a run.

Gaspard kept the Bears in front through the fifth and sixth innings before giving way to Braydon Kersey in the seventh. For the day, Gaspard worked three innings of scoreless baseball, allowing two hits while striking out three.

Kersey kept the Terriers off the board in the seventh, but Wofford took advantage of a crucial error in the eighth to put up two runs and take a 6-5 lead. That was where the game would end, as the Terriers sat down the Bears in order in the ninth to take the win.

UP NEXT

Mercer and Wofford will wrap up the series tomorrow at 1 p.m. at Russell C. King Field.