Mercer baseball sweeps East Tennessee State

The Mercer baseball team won its 20th game of the season Sunday, completing a sweep of East Tennessee State with a 9-8 victory on Sunday afternoon at Thomas Stadium in Johnson City, Tennessee.

Mercer jumped out to an early lead thanks to five hits in the first inning. Ryan Hagan started the scoring with a two-run double, before Charlie Madden's RBI single pushed the Bears' lead to 3-0. The Bears added another run in the third on Ben Upton's run-scoring triple, but ETSU answered in the home half with a solo home run.

The Bears added a run in the sixth, as Trey Truitt drove in Matt Meeder with a single in the gap for a 5-1 advantage. The Bucs responded in the bottom of the seventh with a pair of solo home runs to cut Mercer's lead in half, 5-3.

Mercer came back in the top of the eighth with three runs, as the Bears did all of their damage with two outs. Jose Hernandez jump-started the rally with a two-out double before scoring on Danny Edgeworth's single up the middle. Hagan pushed the lead to 8-3 with a two-run single.

The Buccaneers stole the momentum in the bottom of the eighth, scoring five runs thanks to a game-tying grand slam from pinch hitter Caleb Longley. The late-inning fireworks continued in the top of the ninth, however, as Adam Moore followed Jackson Ware's lead-off single with the game-winning RBI double.

ETSU threatened with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, putting runners on the corners before Austin Cox got a big flyout to record his second save of the year.

Hagan went 2-for-4 with four RBI.

Mercer (20-13) is at Georgia Southern on Tuesday.

This story was originally published April 10, 2016 at 8:01 PM with the headline "Mercer baseball sweeps East Tennessee State ."