Mercer baseball edges Furman in series opener

The Mercer baseball team recorded a wild 8-7 defeat of Furman on Friday night at Claude Smith Field, as Ryan Hagan scored the game’s winning run on a wild pitch for the Bears’ third straight win.

Furman raced out to an early lead in the series opener, as Deon Sanders kicked off the scoring with a two-run shot in the top of the second. The Paladins added a run in both the third and fourth innings for a 4-0 advantage, but the Bears turned the momentum in the bottom of the fourth.

Mercer used six straight two-out hits in the fourth to explode for seven runs in the inning. Adam Moore started the rally with a two-out RBI single, before scoring on Matt Meeder’s double to left center. Trey Truitt plated Meeder with a single through the left side and would score, as well, on Kyle Lewis’ single to center. Charlie Madden wrapped up the scoring with the inning’s sixth straight hit, a towering three-run home run to left center for a 7-4 advantage.

However, the Paladins took advantage of two costly errors in the top of the eighth to knot the contest at 7 with three runs. After Conard Broom put Furman down in order in the top of the ninth, Mercer came through with the heroics though as the Paladins’ second wild pitch of the inning allowed the Bears to walk-off with the win.

As they have done all season, the Orange and Black used a huge inning to key the victory. The Bears scored seven of their eight runs in one inning, marking the sixth time this season that the team has scored seven or more runs in one frame.

Ryan Askew went seven innings for the third straight game, as he fell just short of his fifth straight quality start after giving up four runs on six hits. The junior, who held Furman scoreless in his final three innings, struck out six batters while only allowing two of the six hits to leave the infield.

This story was originally published April 22, 2016 at 10:06 PM with the headline "Mercer baseball edges Furman in series opener."