JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. – In a game that featured 23 runs and 31 hits, the Mercer baseball team didn't do enough as it fell to ETSU 13-10 on Friday evening at Cardinal Park.

The loss drops Mercer to 20-18 overall and 5-8 in Atlantic Sun play. ETSU, meanwhile, improves to 20-13 overall and 9-4 in A-Sun action with the win.

The Bears jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning. Three-straight singles by sophomore Billy Burns, senior Tyler McCarty and sophomore Jacob Tanis plated the first run to make the score 1-0. Mercer touched up ETSU starter Chas Byrne for two more runs, thanks to a two-RBI single by senior Nick DiMauro, to go up 3-0.

The Buccaneers got one back in the bottom of the first when lead-off hitter Matthew Scruggs drilled a solo home run off Mercer starter Brandon Love to cut Mercer's lead to 3-1.

Scruggs struck again in the bottom of the second, this time with a two-run home run to tie the game up at 3-3.

The Bears retook the lead in the third after senior Michael Langley scored on a wild pitch to make the score 4-3.

ETSU kept the see-saw affair going when it scored two more runs in the bottom of the third to take its first lead of the game. A solo home run by sophomore Bo Reeder and an RBI single by sophomore Skyler Barnett put the Bucs out in front, 5-4.

Barnett's RBI single put an end to Love's day after just 2.0 innings of work. The Augusta, Ga. native gave up five earned runs and threw 76 pitches on the evening.

Mercer rallied to re-take the lead once again with five unanswered runs in the fifth and sixth innings. An RBI double by DiMauro and an RBI single by junior Joe Winker in the fifth put the Bears back in front, 6-5. RBI groundouts by McCarty and junior John Moreland and an RBI double by Langley stretched Mercer's lead out to 9-5.

Unfortunately, the lead did not last in the end as the home team scored eight runs over the final three innings of the contest to come away with the win. Scruggs anchored the charge with a double and an RBI triple.

Mercer will be back in action on Saturday afternoon when it plays a doubleheader against ETSU to conclude the three-game series. Game one is scheduled for 1 p.m. with game two to follow at 4 p.m. at Cardinal Park.