Mercer rallies to beat Georgia

Mercer opened the stands at OrthoGeorgia Park to fans for the first time Tuesday night.

And those fans — most of them anyway — went home happy.

After trailing by three runs twice, Mercer rallied for a 6-5 win over Georgia to improve to 4-0. The Bulldogs drop to 1-3.

Mercer scored three runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to take its first lead, only to have the Bulldogs tie it at 5 with a run in the eighth. The teams went to the ninth still tied, and Georgia left a runner at third base in the top half.

Mercer, on the other hand, took advantage of its opportunity as Matt Meeder singled home Danny Edgeworth for the game-winning run.

Both teams hit three home runs and finished with eight hits.

Five who mattered

Jackson Ware: The Mercer junior went 2-for-3 with one RBI on a solo home run and two runs scored.

Alex Hanson: Playing in his first game for the Bears, Hanson had a two-out, two-run home run in the seventh to give Mercer its first lead.

Tucker Maxwell/Cam Shepherd: The Georgia freshmen both had two hits from the top two spots in the Bulldogs’ lineup, and Maxwell had his first career home run.

Michael Curry: The Georgia sophomore had a two-run home run in the fourth to give the Bulldogs a 3-0 lead.

Turning point

Georgia left the go-ahead runner at third base in the top of the ninth, only to have Edgeworth lead off the bottom half with a four-pitch walk. Edgeworth moved to second on a perfect bunt by Ware and came home on Meeder’s single.

Observations

Going deep: Six players hit home runs – three each for each team – and eight of the 11 runs in the game were scored on home runs.

Getting the start: Georgia starter Andrew Gist matched his career high with six strikeouts in 4 2/3 innings. Mercer starter Austin Cox had seven strikeouts in 3 2/3 innings.

They said it

Meeder on the game-winner: “I knew he was going to throw me a curveball, so I was really just sitting back, thinking, ‘Right side.’ I got through it, and it went up the middle. Right when I hit it, I felt it, and I knew we were going to win.”

Mercer head coach Craig Gibson on the win: “They’ve got a really good club. Their starter was really good; he was tough. He was tough against us last year. I told the guys last weekend, ‘I don’t think you’re a good club until you can come from behind,’ and we were able to battle and get a couple of balls up into the air. It’s a fun game, a great way to open the park against a great club, and we just happened to come out on the right end (Tuesday).”

Georgia head coach Scott Stricklin on the loss: “I thought we played really well. It was just unfortunately not good enough. When you play a good team on the road, you’re going to have to do some special things to win, and we just didn’t quite do enough.”

What’s next?

Georgia travels to Georgia Southern for a three-game series starting at 6:30 p.m. on Friday. Mercer hosts Hartford in a three-game series starting at 4 p.m. on Friday.

This story was originally published February 21, 2017 at 10:36 PM with the headline "Mercer rallies to beat Georgia."