NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Mercer baseball team continues its quest for a fourth conference title in school history when it battles ETSU in the Quarterfinals of the A-Sun Championship at 7 p.m. on Thursday evening at Lipscomb University's Dugan Field at Marsh Stadium.

The second-seeded Bears are coming off an impressive 10-1 triumph over Jacksonville in their first round match-up, while ETSU advanced after besting UNF 7-5 on Wednesday evening.

Season Series Recap Against ETSU

Mercer took two out of three on the road against Jacksonville in its regular season series on April 16 and 17. The Bucs won game one 13-10, but the Bears came back to take games two and three by 11-6 and 11-5 margins.

The Orange and Black put game two away with some extra base hit power in the fourth and sixth. With the game tied at 3-3 in the fourth, senior Nick DiMauro hit a two-RBI double and junior Joe Winker clubbed a two-run home run to put Mercer out in front, 7-3.

The Bears used the long ball once again to put the game away in the sixth. Junior Thomas Carroll hit a three-run home run to right field to make the score 10-4.

Game three required some resilience from Mercer after ETSU built up a 5-2 lead going into the eighth inning.

The Bears once again turned to the long ball to pull out a dramatic victory. A six-run eighth inning, highlighted by two-run home runs by freshman Travis Benn, junior John Moreland and sophomore Jacob Tanis, gave Mercer a commanding 11-5 lead.

Scouting the Opposition

ETSU (31-26, 15-12 A-Sun) enters its quarterfinal match-up with Mercer after down UNF 7-5 in first round action last night. Freshman Kerry Doane hit a two-RBI single in the fifth to put ETS out in front 5-2. That would be enough run support for junior Bo Burton who pitched 8.1 innings and struck out six for the win.  

Atlantic Sun Player of the Years Paul Hoilman leads a very dangerous ETSU lineup that ranked first in the A-Sun in RBI (452) and home runs (90). Hoilman ranks first in the conference in batting average (.422), slugging percentage (.862), home runs (24) and total bases (194). Hoilman has plenty of help, however, with A-sun All-Conference first team selection Derek Trent right behind him with a .359 batting average and 64 RBI>

Game Notes

- Mercer finished this season with a 16-8 road record, the 11^th best road mark in the nation.

- According to the recently released national statistics, sophomore Jacob Tanis finished the regular season with the second-most RBI the country, with 83.   

 - The Bears are a remarkable 27-1 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 now has 34 wins this year after last night's victory, putting it in a tie with the 2006 edition of the Bears for the most wins in a single-season this decade.