MACON, Ga. — Mercer swept a Saturday doubleheader against the Bellarmine University baseball team by scores of 6-1 and 4-3, the latter on a walk-off homer at OrthoGeorgia Park.
Mercer (8-4) has won the first three in the four-games series against Bellarmine (5-5). The Saturday twill bill consisted of two 7-inning contests.
GAME 1: Mercer 6, Bellarmine 1
Mercer's Ryan Lobus (1-1) earned the win after limiting Bellarmine to one run on three hits with nine strikeouts in 5.1 innings pitched. Jaxon O'Neal fanned a pair in tossing 1.2 scoreless innings to sew up the victory.
Bellarmine's lone run came in the fourth inning on a sacrifice fly by senior second baseman
Peyton Back. The Knights had the bases loaded with no outs in the frame but could only get the one run across. They had a pair on with one out in the sixth but failed to score.
Mercer went ahead with a three-run second inning. Treyson Hughes added a solo homer in the third, and Ty Dalley had a two-run shot in the sixth to cap the scoring.
Four different Knights had one hit.
GAME 2: Mercer 4, Bellarmine 3
With the score knotted at 3-all in the bottom of the seventh, Mercer's Hughes led off the frame by launching a walk-off homer.
Until that point, the teams had traded runs, scoring one each in the first, second and sixth innings. Sophomore designated hitter
Casey Sorg smacked an RBI triple in the first, freshman first baseman
Brady Morse followed a double by senior left fielder
Tommy Dilz with his own two-bagger for an RBI in the second and Dilz added a go-ahead, two-out RBI single in the sixth.
Dalley hit a tying homer in the bottom of the sixth before the Hughes' walk-off in the seventh.
Sorg and Dilz had two hits apiece. Bellarmine had eight total and limited Mercer to five. Senior right-hander
Devin Ecklar had four strikeouts in 2.1 innings of relief.
The teams will conclude the series with a 1 p.m. (ET) matchup Sunday.
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