Mercer baseball drops series finale at Butler

The Mercer baseball team dropped the final game of its series to Butler 7-3 on Sunday in Indianapolis.

Mercer struck in the opening inning, as Kyle Lewis, who doubled with two outs, came around to score on an error for a 1-0 advantage. The Bears manufactured a run in the second, pushing their lead to 2-0 on Jackson Ware’s sacrifice bunt that allowed Ryan Hagan to cross the plate.

Butler (14-35) tied the game in the bottom of the third, as RBI singles from Tyler Houston and Jordan Lucio knotted the contest at 2. The Bulldogs took advantage of four walks in the sixth inning to plate five runs on just two hits to grab a 7-2 advantage.

Mercer (33-20) scored a run in the ninth to cut the lead to four, 7-3, on Trey Truitt’s RBI single, but the Bears were unable to get anything else going as they saw their three-game winning streak come to an end.

The Bears travel to UNC-Greensboro for a key Southern Conference series that begins Friday. The regular-season crown will be on the line.

This story was originally published May 15, 2016 at 9:24 PM with the headline "Mercer baseball drops series finale at Butler."