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MACON, Ga. – The Mercer baseball squad is set to open a five-game homestand with a pair of non-conference midweek games. No. 27 Georgia Tech visits Claude Smith Field to complete the home-and-home series on Tuesday, April 22 and Western Carolina comes to Macon on Wednesday, April 23. Both games are set to start at 6 p.m.
Mercer (18-24, 12-12 A-Sun) took the first two games, 8-6 and 5-2, at Kennesaw State before falling in the go-away game, 5-4.
Justin Boyette and
Dan April each picked up a win from the mound and Josh Lowey and
John Hoelzer tallied a save in the wins.
Joe Winker batted .500 for the weekend with four RBI and a .750 slugging percentage, while notching a four-for-four performance in game two and a home run in game one.
Mike Armstrong added five hits with one double and a home run to record a .385 average.
Armstrong leads the Bears offensively with a .348 average on a team-best 57 hits. Winker, Billy Shaughnessy,
Matt Crawford and
John Dortch each add a .342 average to a team that is hitting .313 for the year.
Georgia Tech (28-12) enters the game having lost five of its last seven games. The Yellow Jackets avoided a series sweep by taking game three, 9-6, at ACC foe Maryland over the weekend. The Ramblinwreck dropped the first two games, 7-5 and 14-13.
Luke Murton and Charlie Blackmon power GT’s offense, batting .378 and .366 respectively. Murton adds a team-best .697 slugging percent while Blackmon leads the squad with 56 hits and 16 stolen bases. Deck McGuire anchors the Yellow Jacket pitching staff with a perfect 6-0 record and 3.28 ERA.
Mercer nearly pulled off the upset of then No. 17 Georgia Tech back on March 19 at Russ Chandler Stadium. The Bears out-hit the Yellow Jackets 15 to 9, but fell 7-6 as Blackmon sent a two-out, two-RBI single to right field in the bottom of the eighth to lead the Ramblinwreck to victory. Dortch was a double shy of the cycle, going three-for-five with three RBI. Armstrong added three hits and two RBI for the Bears.
Western Carolina (18-20) is set to host Clemson on Tuesday before heading down to Macon on Wednesday. A suicide squeeze by Jason Haynes in the top of the tenth inning gave the Catamounts a 5-4 win over Appalachian State in the final game of a Sunday doubleheader, allowing a split for the day as Western Carolina fell in the opening game, 12-8.
Offensive powerhouse Blake Murphy is batting .325 with 12 doubles and 13 homers to tally a team-best .738 slugging percent along with 17 stolen bases and a .517 on-base-percentage. Nick Liles leads the Catamounts from the box with a .369 average and 65 hits.
Mercer slugged out a 13-10 win over Western Carolina on March 7 last season. The Bears were out-hit 20-15, but the Catamounts stranded 15 runners on base while Mercer notched four home runs.
Steve Karwatt led the attack going three-for-five and registering career-highs in RBI (5), runs scored (3) and home runs (2). Tyler Brown also went three-for-five and Crawford registered a pair of hits in the victory.
“It’s always nice to play at home and this week we have a great opportunity to play two tough opponents,” commented Coach
Craig Gibson. “Both Georgia Tech and Western Carolina are great teams to prelude into a big conference weekend.”