Bears Blast Past No. 3 Georgia Tech

Tuesday, May 12

Atlanta, Ga.

6 p.m.

Mercer University

40-13

#3 Georgia Tech

42-9

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Mercer	2	3	2	0	5	0	0	0	0	12	11	3
Georgia Tech	0	0	2	0	0	2	5	0	0	9	11	2

5/12/2026 11:02:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

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

MACON – For the first time since 2018, the Mercer Bears (40-13, 12-6 SoCon) got the better of No. 3 Georgia Tech (42-9, 22-5 ACC) at Russ Chandler Stadium on Tuesday night. The Bears' 12-9 win over the No. 3 team in the nation is head coach Craig Gibson's 24th win against ranked opponents and the highest since the Bears upset No. 1 Florida in 2018.

Decisive Plays:

The Bears led wire-to-wire due to a two-run triple by Titan Kamaka in the top of the first inning. Eli Stephens mashed a three-run home run (18) the next inning. Braydon Kersey gave Mercer a 7-0 lead in the third inning with a two-run home run (21). Georgia Tech got on the scoreboard with two runs in the bottom of the third. Chris Katz extended the Bears' lead back to seven runs with a two-run double (16) in the top of the fifth. Stephens struck again with a two-run home run (19) the following at-bat. The Yellow Jackets displayed why they lead the country in scoring with seven runs in the sixth and seventh innings before Andrew Garnett dialed up a routine double play to put an abrupt halt to Georgia Tech's comeback attempts. Garnett retired the next six batters he faced and collected three strikeouts to pick up the nine-out save.

Notables:

The Mercer Bears upset the No. 3 team in the nation with a 12-9 win over Georgia Tech on Tuesday night. Head coach Craig Gibson is now 8-3 against teams ranked in the top five and has 24 wins over ranked opponents across his 23-year tenure.
Tonight's win is the first time Mercer got the better of the Yellow Jackets in Atlanta since 2018. Head coach Craig Gibson now has six wins against Georgia Tech.

Key Contributors:

Eli Stephens: 3-for-5, 6 RBI, 2 HR, 2B, 2 R
Braydon Kersey: 2-for-3, 2 RBI, HR, 2 R, 2 IBB
Jeb Johnson: 5.1 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 4 SO, W, 90 NP
Andrew Garnett: 3.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 SO, SV, 29 NP

Next Game:

The Bears end their regular season with a three-game series against Southern Conference foe ETSU (30-19, 10-8 SoCon). First pitch for Thursday, May 14 is scheduled for 5:00 p.m. Pitching matchups are TBD. Live stats are available here. All games will be streamed on ESPN+.