Mercer baseball team set for second Southern Conference season

It hasn't come up much during the preseason, but Mercer's baseball team blazed through the Southern Conference last year, winning the regular-season and tournament titles in its first season in the conference.

So the Bears know they will have a target on their backs as they go through their second Southern Conference season. And they are ready for that.

"We know that, and we've known it since the fall," junior catcher Charlie Madden said. "We have embraced that, and it makes us work harder."

The Bears' hard work paid off last year as they finished with a 16-7 conference record (35-23 overall) and won all four of their games in the conference tournament. Mercer advanced to the NCAA Tournament and played in the Tallahassee Regional, losing a pair of one-run games to Florida State and Auburn.

"No one is like, 'We need to win, we need to win,' or that kind of stuff," junior outfielder Kyle Lewis said of any talk of a repeat. "It doesn't really come up a lot unless it's just about goals for the season, and we may mention it then. Day to day, we don't really talk about that because the reality is it's a long season. There are 56 games ahead, and we haven't even made it through one yet. All that kind of stuff is down the road, and right now, we're just trying to get through the first game and go from there."

The season starts Friday against Radford, while the first conference series is March 24-26 at home against Wofford. And the Bears think the experiences of the first year in the conference will help them this season.

"When you get to the ballpark, at least you know what the team looks like," Lewis said with a smile. "Last year, we didn't have any idea who we were facing, and we were like, 'Man, I don't even know the color of their jerseys.' So there is definitely more of a comfort factor. Just as far as knowing who you're facing, knowing the coaching styles and everything about the other teams, it definitely helps a lot to have been through it."

This story was originally published February 17, 2016 at 2:07 PM with the headline "Mercer baseball team set for second Southern Conference season ."