Bears Look to Stay Perfect with Pair of Mid-Week Tilts

MACON, Ga. (MERCER RELEASE) – The Mercer baseball team is looking to make history when it welcomes Savannah State and Georgia Southern into town for mid-week contests at Claude Smith Field.

The Bears host Savannah State on Tuesday at 6 p.m. with their game against Georgia Southern scheduled for a 4 p.m. start on Wednesday.

Mercer (8-0) is trying to start a campaign with nine-straight wins for the first time in program history, eclipsing the mark of eight-straight wins to begin a season set back in 1970.

SCOUTING THE OPPONENT

Savannah State comes into Tuesday night’s contest with a 3-4 overall record after taking two-of-three from Chicago State over the weekend. The Tigers are coming off their best season in program history when they went 33-23 and won their first-ever MEAC Tournament Championship by defeating Bethune-Cookman 1-0 in the title game. Savannah State is hitting .297 as a team so far this season, led by junior David Richards who paces the squad with a .423 batting average, three doubles and six RBI.

Georgia Southern enters play this week with a 7-1 overall record after sweeping a four-game weekend series from University of Maryland Eastern Shore last time out. The Eagles already have two wins over Georgia and a mid-week triumph over Georgia Tech on its resume thus far in 2014. Georgia Southern was picked to finish third in the 2014 Southern Conference Preseason Coaches’ poll and is led by senior outfielder Stryker Brown who is sporting a .429 batting average to go along with three home runs and 16 RBI.

LAST TIME OUT

MACON, Ga. – The Mercer baseball team tied its best start to a season in program history following Sunday afternoon’s series finale 6-5 comeback win over Evansville at Claude Smith Field.

Down 4-0 early in the contest, Mercer showed its poise thanks to a pair of veterans in the bottom half of the fourth. Seniors Michael Massi and Sasha LaGarde both launched home runs to highlight a four-run frame that tied things up between the Bears and Purple Aces, at 4-4.

Sensing momentum was on their side, Mercer took advantage in the bottom of the sixth with back-to-back RBI singles by LaGarde and junior Chesny Young to take its first lead of the game at 6-5.

The Mercer bullpen would do the rest from there as junior Morgan Pittman threw two scoreless innings of relief and was followed by classmate Ben Lumsden who pitched a scoreless ninth to record his second save of the season.

FAST FACTS

– The Bears join UAB and Florida International as the only three teams in the country to have perfect 8-0 records through the first two weekends of the season.

– Senior Sasha LaGarde was named A-Sun Conference Player of the Week after leading Mercer to a perfect 5-0 record last week with a .455 batting average, three home runs, 10 RBI and 10 runs scored.

– Mercer currently leads the A-Sun Conference with a .479 slugging percentage, .410 on-base percentage and 10 home runs.