Mercer baseball claims Southern Conference regular-season title
The Mercer baseball team defeated UNC Greensboro 9-1 on Friday afternoon to claim its second straight Southern Conference regular season title. The Bears’ win was their 35th of the season and marked the seventh straight year that the program has reached the milestone.
“This was a great series win for us, and it means a lot going into next week,” Mercer head coach Craig Gibson said. “We get to the play the winner of the play-in game, so that helps us against their pitching but you still have to win four games. We have certainly played well the past 15 games and had the best season, but there is a lot of parity in this league and it should be a very competitive tournament next week.”
Mercer scored two runs right out of the gate, as Blaise Lezynski started the two-run rally with a RBI double down the right field line. Charlie Madden followed with a sacrifice fly, scoring Kyle Lewis for a 2-0 advantage.
The Bears tacked on three more runs in the top of the third. Madden’s single up the middle scored Lewis to kick off the rally, before a run-scoring double by Hunter Bening and a RBI from Jackson Ware pushed the lead to 5-0.
The Spartans broke up starter Kevin Coulter’s shutout bid in the bottom half of the inning, as L.J. Kalawaia’s RBI made it a 5-1 contest.
Bening grew Mercer’s lead to 7-1 in the top of the fifth, blasting a two-run shot into the trees in left field. Madden drove in two more runs in the top of the eighth for a 9-1 lead, which proved to be plenty of run support for Coulter.
Mercer controlled the game from the start thanks to an impressive effort in all facets. The Bears’ pitching staff continued its domination of the league’s top offense, holding UNCG to two or fewer runs for the third time this weekend. Meanwhile, the Bears offense scored multiple runs in four innings on their way to the convincing win.
Coulter saved the best game of his career for when it counted, as the freshman held the Spartans’ high-scoring offense to just one run in a career-high eight innings of action. The Buford native scattered seven hits during that stretch, recording his team-leading seventh win of the year.
“It all started with the pitching (Friday); Kevin was unbelievable,” Gibson said. “We made a decision as a staff to hold him off after we won the opening game of the series and it worked for us. He is an awesome competitor, and you can’t say enough about our pitching staff as a whole for coming into this environment and shut down one of the top offenses in the country.”
Mercer opens conference tournament play Wednesday in Greenville, South Carolina.
This story was originally published May 20, 2016 at 10:05 PM with the headline "Mercer baseball claims Southern Conference regular-season title."