Bears Drop Tightly-Contested Affair To Georgia Tech

Wednesday, May 7

Macon, Ga.

6 p.m.

Mercer University

31-20

Georgia Tech

35-14

Georgia Tech

Mercer

Bears Drop Tightly-Contested Affair To Georgia Tech

5/7/2025 9:22:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

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

MACON – In what was a pitcher's duel throughout, the Mercer baseball team came up just short against Georgia Tech on Wednesday night, falling by a score of 4-3.

Ely Brown (3-for-4) scored two runs, Brant Baughcum (2-for-4) had his fifth consecutive multi-hit game and Parker Lester (1-for-4) homered to lead the Bears offensively. Jeb Johnson (4-4) took a tough-luck loss, tossing six innings of three-run ball, striking out five while limiting the Yellow Jackets to four hits. Connor Chicoli (1-0) got the win for Georgia Tech.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Georgia Tech threatened to begin the game, putting the first two men on base with a single and a walk. However, Johnson buckled down, including a 4-6-3 double play before a groundout ended the inning.

The Yellow Jackets got on the board in the top of the second, using a two-run homer to make it a 2-0 game. However, Johnson continued to keep his team in the game after the home run, allowing just one hit through the next two innings to keep the deficit at two.

The Bears finally got going offensively in the bottom of the fourth. Brown started things off with a single before advancing to second on a groundout to put himself in scoring position. With two outs in the inning, Bradley Frye delivered a single to right center, scoring Brown to get the Bears on the board. However, Georgia Tech answered right back in their next at-bats with a solo home run, making the score 3-1.

Johnson went back out for the top of the sixth inning and ended his night by working a 1-2-3 inning, keeping the Bears within striking distance. Braydon Kersey took over for Johnson in the seventh and put up a zero, freezing a Georgia Tech hitter for a strikeout to strand a runner at third. It was Craig Kalkbrenner's turn on the bump in eighth, who put up a zero of his own with help from a diving catch by second baseman Titan Kamaka and a backhanded stab and across-the-body throw from Frye at shortstop.

With two outs in the bottom of the eighth, Brown collected his third hit of the day, a hustle double into the right center field gap. Baughcum took advantage of the opportunity, lining a single into left field to score Brown and cut the deficit back to one.

Just as they had earlier in the game, the Yellow Jackets brought their lead back up to one, scratching across a run in the top of the ninth to make it 4-2.

Lester made things interesting in the bottom of the ninth, launching a solo home run with one out in the inning to make it 4-3. The home run was his 11^th of the season, the third-highest mark on the team. With two outs, Drew Johnson slapped a single to the opposite field to bring the winning run to the plate. However, Georgia Tech was able to induce a sharply-hit groundout to hang on to the win.

UP NEXT

The Bears will head to Blacksburg, Va. over the weekend to take on another ACC foe in Virginia Tech for a two-game series. First pitch for Saturday's series-opener is set for 3 p.m., while Sunday's first pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m.