Mercer roundup: Baseball team rolls, lacrosse edged, softball splits
A seven-run eighth inning lifted Merer to a 12-9 win Saturday over host East Tennessee State in Southern Conference baseball.
Mercer (19-13, 5-3 Southern Conference) too, the lead in the fourth on homers by Kyle Lewis and Charlie Madden, but ETSU (15-15, 3-5) took it back and led 8-4 after five.
The Bears' Blaise Lezynski had an RBI double to get things going in the eighth, Trey Truitt chipping in a homer and Lewis a run-scoring triple for an 11-8 lead.
Lewis extended his streak of games reaching base to 32 with a 2-for-3 game.
Austin Cox pitched a scoreless seventh to get his second win of the year.
Earlier Saturday, the teams completed a game stopped by rain Friday, with Mercer taking a 7-5 win.
The Bears led 5-0 after four at-bats, but the Bucs scored one in the bottom of the fourth and then two in the seventh before the game was suspended.
Kyle Lewis's single and Ben Upton drove in runs in the eighth for a 7-3 lead, and the Bucs cut it to 7-5 in the ninth, but Conard Broom got the final two outs for the save.
The series concludes at 1 p.m. on Sunday.
Mercer nipped by No. 12 Air Force
The Mercer men's lacrosse team gave 12th-ranked and Southern Conference co-leader Air Force all it could handle Saturday before losing 15-13 in men's lacrosse.
Deadlocked at 10-10 entering the fourth quarter, Air Force scored 30 seconds into the quarter, but Mercer responded with goals from Chris Baxa and Shawn Carter to retake the lead at 12-11 with just under 10 minutes to play.
Air Force answered with two goals only for Mercer's Ben LeSane to tie it at 13 with 5:49 left. But Air Force made plays and got goals from Chris Walsch and Danny Brown in the final three minutes for the win.
Mercer splits road softball doubleheader
Mercer rolled to a 15-2 win in the first game of a Southern Conference softball doubleheader at UNC Greensboro on Saturday, but the hosts took the 6-3 nightcap.
The Bears (18-23, 1-4 Southern Conference) earned their first league win of the season in dominant fashion, tagging three-time conference pitcher of the week Alicia Bazonski (13-4) with eight runs in a little more than one inning pitched.
Mercer had a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the seventh of the nightcap, but Nicole Thomas belted a walkoff grand slam for the Spartans win.
The series concludes at 1 p.m. on Sunday.
This story was originally published April 9, 2016 at 9:44 PM with the headline "Mercer roundup: Baseball team rolls, lacrosse edged, softball splits ."