STATESBORO - Mekhia Freeman's two-run home run in the bottom of the seventh inning capped a 5-3 comeback win for Georgia Southern softball over visiting Mercer on Wednesday evening at Eagle Field.

The Eagles improved to 4-1 overall and won for the first time against in-state rival Mercer (1-5) since 2013. Georgia Southern next travels to Orlando to compete in the Citrus Classic on Feb. 14-16 at the ESPN/Disney Wide World of Sports Complex.

Mercer took an early 2-0 lead on back-to-back doubles by Elisa Rosado and Danielle Castleberry, along with an error, in the top of the first inning. The Bears then made it a 3-0 lead in the fourth thanks to an Eagle error on a first-and-third play, scoring Castleberry.

The Eagles began their comeback in the fifth as Bailee Wilson had a two-run double down the right field line and Alia Booth followed with an RBI single to tie the game at three.

In the bottom of the seventh, freshman Ashlynn Gunter led off the inning with a single to left. Freeman attempted to sacrifice Gunter into scoring position, but fouled off a pair of pitches to go down 0-2 in the count. After a pair of pitches outside the strike zone, Freeman then blasted a 2-2 pitch to right center field for the walk-off heroics.

"It was just a hard-fought game," Georgia Southern Head Softball Coach Kim Dean said. "I'm really proud of the girls. We had a couple of miscues, and dug ourselves in a little hole.But our energy stayed up, and our confidence stayed up. We kept getting better and better at-bats, and our innings got stronger and stronger. All in all a great team effort, and a good team win against a quality Mercer squad."

Freshman Aaliyah Garcia (2-0) picked up the win in relief for the Eagles with two innings of perfect ball, striking out two. Amber Byrd (0-2) gave up both seventh-inning runs to take the loss for the Bears.

Freeman and Gunter each collected two hits on the evening for the Eagles, while Wilson and Freeman each drove in two.