Mercer Beats Samford On Friday Afternoon

Friday, May 1

Birmingham, Ala.

1 p.m.

Mercer University

34-12, 8-5

Samford

23-20, 8-5

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Mercer	0	2	1	0	0	0	1	0	2	6	13	0
Samford	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	3	6	0

5/1/2026 5:17:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

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

MACON – The Mercer Bears (34-12, 8-5 SoCon) won their ninth straight contest, and fourth straight conference game, with a 6-3 victory over the Samford Bulldogs (23-20, 8-6 SoCon) on Friday afternoon at Joe Lee Griffin Field.

Decisive Plays:

Mercer struck first off a Braydon Kersey sacrifice fly in the top of the second. Dylan LaPointe doubled the Bears' lead with an RBI single in the next at-bat. Jeffrey Ince responded in the bottom half of the inning with a two-run home run (2). Titan Kamaka pushed Mercer back in front with an RBI triple (2) to deep center field in the top of the third. Eli Stephens extended the Bears' lead with an RBI double (5) in the top of the seventh that broke a four-inning scoreless drought. Stephens gave Mercer a pair of insurance runs with a two-run home run (14) in the top of the ninth. Luke Boykin made it a 6-3 ballgame with a solo home run (13) before Reid Fagerstrom entered the game and earned his first save of the season.

Key Contributors:

Eli Stephens: 4-for-5, 3 RBI, HR, 2B, 2 R
Titan Kamaka: 2-for-5, RBI, 3B
Dylan LaPointe: 2-for-4, RBI
Garrett Lambert: 6.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 SO, W
Andrew Garnett: 2.2 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 SO

Notables:

The Bears improved to 34-12 after beating Samford on Friday night. Last season, Mercer finished the year with 35 total wins.
Mercer's win on Friday night extended the Bears' winning streak to nine games. This is the second time Mercer has won nine games in a row this season.

Next Game:

The Bears continue their weekend series against Samford on Saturday, May 2. First pitch is scheduled for 5:00 p.m. RHP Miguel Hugas (7-2, 5.79 ERA) will take the mound for Mercer and RHP Mason Blasche (3-5, 5.43 ERA) is slated to start for Samford. Live stats are available here. All games will be streamed on ESPN+.