MACON, Ga. – Winners of its last three Atlantic Sun series and five in a row overall, the Mercer baseball team aims to continue its rise in the conference standings when it takes on Lipscomb in a three-game series starting on Thursday night.

The Bears enter play with a 29-20 overall record and a 12-9 A-Sun mark, while the Bisons check in at 16-31 overall and 7-13 in A-Sun league play. Game one of the three-game series is set for 6 p.m. on Thursday night while games two and three are scheduled for 1 and 4 p.m. on Friday afternoon at Dugan Field at Marsh Stadium.

Last Time Out

The Mercer baseball team dominated from start to finish in an impressive 5-0 win over The Citadel on Tuesday night at Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Park.

Juniors John Moreland and Thomas Carroll each crushed solo home runs early to lead a Mercer offense that out-hit The Citadel, 9-5. That was more than enough run support for the Bears pitching staff that used eight different pitchers to hold The Citadel to just five hits on the day. Sophomore David Randall pitched a scoreless second inning to earn the win, his fifth of the season.

Scouting the Opposition

Lipscomb (16-31, 7-13 A-Sun) enters the series after dropping two-out-of-three to A-Sun member UNF this past weekend. The Bisons currently sit in ninth place in the conference standings, four games behind sixth-place Jacksonville.

The Bisons rely heavily on their senior number one starter Josh Smith. The Margate, Fla. native is the lone bright spot on a pitching staff that ranks last in the A-Sun with a 7.78 team ERA. Smith leads the league in innings pitched (90.1) and ranks second in strikeouts (110) and wins (8).

Senior Tyler Wilson leads the Lipscomb bats with a team-high .343 batting average, 73 hits and 34 stolen bases.

Game Notes

- The Bears shutout win over The Citadel on Tuesday marks the first time that the Bulldogs have been shutout in their home stadium since East Carolina did it back on April 26, 2005.

- According to the recently released national statistics, sophomore Jacob Tanis leads the country with 74 RBI and ranks fourth in the nation with 19 home runs.  

- Mercer's victory at The Citadel on Tuesday also ran its road winning streak up to seven games, which puts it in a three-way tie for the longest current streak in the nation.

- The Bears are a remarkable 22-1 when leading after eight innings so far this season. Their only loss when leading after eight innings came in just the second game of the season against Morehead State on Feb. 20

- Mercer's current five-game winning streak is its second longest of the season and moves its overall record up to a season-high nine games over .500, at 29-20.