Mercer baseball team faces UNC Greensboro with Southern Conference title on line

With one series left to go in the Southern Conference season, the Mercer Bears are right where they expected to be — battling for a conference regular-season title.

And they wouldn’t have it any other way.

The Bears travel to UNC Greensboro starting Thursday with the two teams tied for first place in the conference. Whichever team wins this series will take the conference’s regular-season title and earn the No. 1 seed for the conference tournament.

Last year, Mercer won the regular-season and tournament titles in its first season in the Southern Conference.

“I thought we were one of the best teams starting out, and an opportunity to win a championship is special,” Mercer head coach Craig Gibson said. “It’s going to be tough. It’s not going to be easy, so you’ve got to go on the road and win two out of three against another good club.

“If you asked us in the beginning if we had this opportunity, we would have taken it.”

The Bears faced a similar situation last year and beat Samford in two of three games to win the regular-season title. Mercer then swept through the conference tournament on its way to the NCAA Tournament.

The Bears (33-20 overall) and Spartans (36-17 overall) are both 14-7 in conference play.

“It’s so exciting,” junior Ryan Hagan said. “We were so pumped to get this last series through and to get going. We are ready to take on UNCG, and we’re really prepared. That’s all you can ask for is for it to come down to the last weekend.”

This story was originally published May 18, 2016 at 3:21 PM with the headline "Mercer baseball team faces UNC Greensboro with Southern Conference title on line."