Georgia Tech gets good start, holds on to nip Mercer

The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets scored five runs in the first inning and then held on for a 6-5 win over Mercer at Claude Smith Field on Tuesday.

Brandt Stallings delivered the big hit of the inning, a two-run double, but Georgia Tech took advantage of four walks and a hit batter to take the early lead, which it never gave up.

Mercer got stellar relief pitching from Nick Spear, Carter Varga and Conrad Broom, who combined to strike out 12 hitters in the final 8-1/3 innings, but Mercer fell just short and dropped to 17-13.

FIVE WHO MATTERED

Jose Hernandez: The Mercer designated hitter blasted a three-run homer in the fourth inning to cut into Georgia Tech's lead at 6-4.

Charlie Madden: The Mercer catcher had two hits in the game, scored twice and homered in the fifth inning to make it a 6-5 game.

Broom: The Mercer reliever pitched 3-1/3 innings of scoreless relief to keep the Bears in the game.

Micah Carpenter and Matthew Gorst: The Georgia Tech relievers both were in jams late, with the tying runs on third with less than one out, but both were able to pitch out of the inning.

TURNING POINT

Mercer had runners on first and third in the seventh inning. Danny Edgeworth led off with a walk,and Matt Meeder bunted, but Carpenter threw the ball into centerfield, allowing Edgeworth to advance to third. Carpenter, however, struck out Trey Truitt and Ryan Hagan, and got Kyle Lewis to ground out to short to end the threat.

The Bears put the tying run on third again in the ninth inning when Edgeworth doubled and advanced to third on a groundout. This time it was Gorst who pitched out of the jam, striking out Truitt and Hagan to end the game.

THEY SAID IT

Mercer head coach Craig Gibson on the inability to get the runner in from third in the seventh and ninth innings: "It was probably poor coaching and I didn't do a good job of getting them in. It's my fault. I just haven't done a good job of coaching them, so hopefully we can get in these situations against (East Tennessee State) and handle it a little bit better."

Gibson on the bullpen: "How great were those guys? I mean, Spear, Varga and Broom were really good for us. They had 12 punchouts, so yeah they were really good."

Gibson on getting back in the game after the early deficit: "In this park the homerun plays and gives us a chance, and (I) was just disappointed in the starting pitching. And outside of that, we played pretty well but they have a piece at the end of the game, so you better have the lead or it's going to be tough to come back and beat that guy."

WHAT'S NEXT?

Mercer goes on the road for a three-game series against East Tennessee State starting on Friday.

This story was originally published April 5, 2016 at 10:39 PM with the headline "Georgia Tech gets good start, holds on to nip Mercer ."