Mercer baseball falls to Georgia Tech, 6-5

MACON, Georgia (MERCER ATHLETICS)– The Mercer University baseball team’s comeback bid fell short in a narrow, 6-5, loss to No. 24 Georgia Tech at Claude Smith Field on Tuesday night.

HOW IT HAPPENED
Georgia Tech raced out to an early 5-0 lead despite tallying just two hits, as seven straight batters reached for the Yellow Jackets including five consecutive free passes thanks to four walks and one hit batter. Trey Truitt stopped in the bottom of the first, leading off the game with a solo home run for the Bears to cut the deficit to four, 5-1.

The Yellow Jackets returned their lead to five, 6-1, in the top of the fourth on Wade Bailey’s solo shot. However, the Bears climbed back in the game in the home half, as Jose Hernandez blasted a three-run bomb into the parking lot in right field to pull Mercer within two, 6-4.

Mercer turned to the long ball again in the bottom of the sixth, cutting the deficit to one, 6-5, on Charlie Madden’s solo home run. The Bears had a runner 90 feet away with less than two outs in both the seventh and ninth, but were unable to complete the comeback in their second straight loss.

KEY TO THE GAME
Mercer scored all five of its runs via the long ball thanks to three home runs on the night, its fifth game with three or more homers. However, it wasn’t enough to overcome an early deficit, as Georgia Tech scored five runs in the first inning despite only tallying two hits to lead from the onset.

PLAYER OF THE GAME
Conard Broom had another great outing for the Bears in his nation-leading 20th appearance of the season. The freshman tossed 3.1 scoreless innings, while giving up just two hits and striking out four batters. He retired Georgia Tech standout Kel Johnson two times to help end the sophomore’s 22-game hitting streak, while pushing his strikeout total to 32 over his last 24.2 innings.

COACH GIBSON’S TAKE
“How great was our bullpen tonight? (Nick) Spear, (Carter) Varga and Broom were really good. They carried us to 12 punch outs, giving us a chance to come back and in this park the home run plays so you always have a chance. They had a good piece at the end and you better be ahead when you see him or you’ll be in trouble. Hopefully we can get better in key situations this weekend in Johnson City and pick up some big wins over ETSU.”

NOTABLES

• The Bears now trail Georgia Tech in the series 109-54, after falling for just the fifth time in their last 11 meetings.
• Mercer’s pitching staff reached double-figure strikeouts for the 10th time this season, sitting down 12 Yellow Jackets on Tuesday.
• The Orange and Black’s three home runs pushes their nation-leading total to 48 this season.
• Connor Herd was tagged with his second loss of the year to fall to 2-2, after giving up five runs in a third of an inning.
• Carter Varga had his best outing of the season, limiting Georgia Tech to two hits in 1.2 frames to go along with three strikeouts.
• Madden reached base three times to pace the offense, finishing 2-for-3 with a walk and two runs scored. His homer in the sixth was his fifth long ball of the season.
• Truitt’s lead-off homer was his eighth of the year, as he needed just 30 games to match his 2015 output.
• Hernandez recorded his fourth multiple-RBI performance of 2016 with one swing, driving in three runs with his fifth long ball of the season.
• Kyle Lewis’ walk in the first helped him to reach base for the 30th straight game this season.
• Ryan Hagan saw his streak of reaching base stopped at 29 games.

RECORDS UPDATE
Mercer moves to 17-13 overall, while Georgia Tech improves to 21-7 on the year.

UP NEXT
The Bears continue Southern Conference play this weekend, as they make the trip to Johnson City, Tenn. for a three-game series at ETSU. The action kicks off on Friday, Apr. 8, at 6 p.m.