STATESBORO, Ga. - Behind three home runs and four doubles, the Mercer Bears out-slugged the Georgia Southern Baseball team 12-4 in a mid-week loss at J.I. Clements Stadium on Tuesday. In the first of five games this week, the Eagles allowed seven extra-base hits and hit just one of their own in their third loss of the year.
Ben Morgan (Evans, Ga.) had the one hit and went three-for-four with a double out of the nine hole for Georgia Southern (5-3). The sophomore had half of the team's six hits and only three others put a tally in the hit column. The pitching staff struggled with putting Mercer (9-1) away after getting the first two outs in the inning and allowed eight two-out runs. Sam Howard (Cartersville, Ga.) (1-1) took the loss in the first start of his career. He surrendered five runs on five hits in three innings and struck out four batters.
The Bears' pitching staff limited the Eagle's offense to six hits and allowed only one earned run. Dimitri Kourtis (2-0) cruised through the first two innings and faced just three over the minimum in his final three innings of work to earn the win. David Teasley struck out four batters out of the bullpen and threw a scoreless 1.2 innings. Logan Gaines led the offense with four hits, four runs scored and three RBIs and finished the night a triple shy of the cycle.
Mercer jumped ahead early on a pair of two-out home runs in the first and third innings. Travis Benn capped off a two-out rally in the first inning with a three-run homer over the wall in left center. A leadoff single by Derrick Workman in the third inning came around to score on a two-out big fly from Nick Backlund.
Georgia Southern pulled within two runs with some two-out magic of their own in the bottom of the third inning. A pair of unearned runs crossed the plate after the rightfielder dropped a playable running catch near the line. Before the error, Morgan led off the inning with a double and scored on a wild pitch after Scooter Williams (Detroit, Mich.) bunted him to third.
Mercer, however, pulled ahead 10-4 with five runs, three in the fifth and two in the seventh inning. A pair of doubles drove in a leadoff walk in the top of the fifth and base hits from Jamie McMillian and David Reid-Foley plated two runs in the seventh inning.
The Eagles got a third unearned run across the plate in the seventh inning on a single from Michael Burruss (Marietta, Ga.), but the Bears added another two runs in the eighth inning on Gaines' two-run homer to center field.
Georgia Southern opens a four-game series with North Florida in Jacksonville Thursday at 6 p.m. and returns to J.I. Clements Stadium Saturday at 6 p.m.
All games can be heard on Boomer 103.7 FM and inside the stadium on 88.1 FM. Audio for all games is also available on the web and subscription video is available for all home games at GeorgiaSouthernEagles.com/Eaglevision.
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