Eight Bears Receive A-Sun Postseason Honors

MACON, Ga. – Eight members of the Mercer baseball team received Atlantic Sun postseason honors as announced on Tuesday morning by the league office after voting conducted by the 11 conference head coaches.

The Bears eight A-Sun postseason selections is tied with Jacksonville for the most honorees on this year's ballot and sets a new program record, breaking the previous high of five set in 2010 and 2006.

Juniors Brandon Love and Jacob Tanis landed a spot on the first team, seniors Joe Winker and Thomas Carroll and junior Billy Burns were second team selections and freshmen DJ Johnson, Derrick Workman and Brandon Barker were all voted onto the All-Freshman squad.

Tanis headlines the group, taking home his third A-Sun postseason honor of his career after being named to the All-Conference first team as a sophomore and the All-Freshman team as a freshman. The Peachtree City, Ga. native leads the A-Sun and ranks fourth in the nation with 74 RBI. For the season, Tanis ranks among the A-Sun Top-10 in home runs (T-2nd – 15), total bases (3rd – 143), slugging percentage (3rd - .659), batting average (4th - .373), hits (T-4th – 81), on-base percentage (7th - .462) and runs scored (7th – 58).

For Love, the first team selection is his first-ever A-Sun All-Conference honor during his three years with the Orange and Black. The Marietta, Ga. product finished third in the A-Sun with a 2.45 ERA and fifth in the league with a .250 opposing batting average. He has a 7-1 overall record and ranks second on the team in both innings pitched (73.1) and strikeouts (62).

Winker leads a group of three veteran Mercer players named to the A-Sun All-Conference second team. A fifth-year senior from Orlando, Fla., Winker now has three A-Sun postseason honors in his career after being named to the All-Conference second team and the All-Freshman team back in 2008. Winker is batting .371 this season and ranks fourth in the A-Sun with a .641 slugging percentage and seventh in the league with 12 home runs.

Burns and Carroll manned two of the three outfield spots on the second team for their first career All-Conference selections. Burns is hitting .356 and leads the A-Sun with 68 runs scored and 29 stolen bases. Carroll is hitting .339 and is currently tied for fifth in the league with four triples and tied for ninth with 126 total bases.  

Workman, Johnson and Barker were all selected to the All-Freshman team, giving Mercer three selections on the All-Rookie team in back-to-back seasons.

Workman is hitting .346 and ranked second on the team in stolen bases (11) and tied for second with 74 hits. Barker has a perfect 3-0 record on the season with a 3.91 ERA and 43 strikeouts. Johnson is hitting .261 at the dish while compiling a 1-2 record with a 1.98 ERA in 16 appearances on the mound.

Mercer now looks forward to the A-Sun Championship this week on the campus of Lipscomb University. The Bears open the tournament as the No. 4 seed and take on No. 3 seeded Kennesaw State on May 25, at 8 p.m. ET in the opening round of play. Check back to www.mercerbears.com for full tournament coverage throughout the week.