Mercer Hits the Road to Take on FGCU in Weekend Set

MACON, Ga. – The Mercer baseball team continues its most difficult stretch of the season when it travels to FGCU for a three-game Atlantic Sun series against the Eagles this weekend.

The Bears take on the Eagles in game one of the series on Friday evening at 6:30 p.m. Games two and three will take place on Saturday afternoon at 1 and 4 p.m. at Swanson Stadium.

The Orange and Black have played 11 of their last 13 games against teams in the top 150 RPI. FGCU is currently ranked 123 in team RPI after most recently beating Big 12 member Oklahoma State 10-7 on Wednesday evening.

“It is a tremendous challenge for us to go down there and face a club as talented as FGCU,” head coach Craig Gibson said. “We are going to face one of the top arms in the country, in Chris Sale, so we need to play hard and put together 27 innings of quality baseball against those guys.”

Mercer (16-12, 4-2 A-Sun) is currently tied with UNF for third in the A-Sun standings after taking two out of three from Campbell and Jacksonville in conference play to date. The key to the Bears early season success has been their offensive productivity. Through 28 games, Mercer has scored at least five runs in all but seven contests. The Orange and Black lead the A-Sun in batting average (.351), runs scored (248), hits (358), RBI (227) and total bases (542).

FGCU (15-9, 7-2 A-Sun) comes into this weekend's series in second place in the A-Sun, just a half-game behind ETSU. The Eagles were picked to finish first in the 2010 Atlantic Sun Preseason Coaches' poll after winning the Atlantic Sun Regular Season Championship last season for the second-straight season

Junior Zach Maxfield currently leads the squad with a .429 batting average, 27 RBI and a .690 slugging percentage. Junior Chris Sale, who is 3-0 with a 1.59 ERA, anchors the FGCU pitching staff and will take the mound on Friday night against the Bears.

FGCU owns a 5-1 lead in the all-time series between the two teams. 

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