Bears Outmatched In Tuesday Night Loss

Tuesday, April 14

Kennesaw, Ga.

6 p.m.

Mercer University

25-12

Kennesaw State

16-17

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Mercer	1	2	0	3	0	3	0	0	0	9	13	0
Kennesaw St.	2	5	0	5	0	0	0	0	X	12	15	1

4/14/2026 10:44:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

By: Rylee Bamberger, Rylee.m.bamberger@live.mercer.edu

KENNESAW, Ga. – The Mercer Bears (25-12, 4-5 SoCon) dropped their fourth straight game in a row with a 12-9 loss to Kennesaw State (16-17, 6-9 CUSA) at Mickey Dunn Stadium on Tuesday night.

Decisive Plays:

The Bears jumped off to an early 1-0 lead after an RBI single by Chris Katz cashed in Logan Shepherd who laced a leadoff double to right center field. Kennesaw State immediately responded with two runs in the home half of the first inning headlined by an RBI triple from Chris Cole. Mercer answered back with two runs in the second off Katz's second RBI single of the day and a sacrifice fly by Brant Baughcum. The Owls regained the lead with a five spot in the bottom of the inning. The score remained 7-3 until the fourth inning when Baughcum mashed a three-run home run (9) over the scoreboard in left field that cut the Bears' deficit to one run. Kennesaw State plated five more runs in the bottom of the fourth and took a 12-6 lead. Mercer rattled off four straight two-out singles and drove in three runs in the top of the sixth before Ryan Renfroe put an end to the Bears' rally. Redshirt senior Harry Cain took the mound ahead of the ninth and retired Mercer's side in order to collect his fourth save on the year.

Notables:

Brant Baughcum's three-run home run in the fourth inning was his 25th dinger of his collegiate career. The senior third baseman now has nine homers on the season which surpasses his total of eight round-trippers a year ago.
Drew Johnson laced a single up the middle in the seventh inning. The senior outfielder from Yakima, Washington, now has 150 hits throughout his collegiate career. Johnson tallied 53 hits since transferring to Mercer ahead of the 2025 season.
Kennesaw State's lead-off batter reached safely in all eight opportunities. The Owls drew three lead-off walks, tallied four lead-off hits and had one lead-off hitter hit by a pitch.
The Bears' pitching staff allowed 10 walks, which is the second-most in a single game this season, and 15 hits (tied for the fourth-most).

Key Contributors:

Brant Baughcum: 2-for-4, 4 RBI, HR, 2 R
Chris Katz: 3-for-5, 2 RBI, R

Next Game:

The Bears return to OrthoGeorgia Park for a three-game weekend series against Towson (15-19, 4-14 CAA) beginning on Friday, April 17. First pitch is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. Pitching matchups are TBD. Live stats are available here.