In a game that featured five home runs, 27 runs scored and 36 total hits, the Mercer Bears scored five times in the ninth inning to break an 11-11 tie and went on to defeat the VMI Keydets, 16-11, in Southern Conference baseball action Sunday in Lexington, Va.
Taylor Edens entered in the seventh with the Keydets trailing 11-8, and VMI tied the game for him in the bottom of that frame. In the ninth, however, Mercer (29-18, 14-6 SoCon) would bat around.
Nate Moorhouse led off with a single and after a sacrifice bunt, Devin Bonin hit a slow chopper that bounced just over the glove of Edens and toward second baseman Thomas Stallings. Stallings flipped to first, but the ball got away for a hit and a error to score Moorhouse and give Mercer a 12-11 lead. After an intentional walk and a hit by pitch loaded the bases, Trey Truitt lofted a sacrifice fly to push the lead to two, and the next batter, Danny Edgeworth blooped a single to left. The ball got under the glove of Ray Lopez for an additional error that allowed an extra run to score, making it 15-11, and Howard Joe capped the scoring with a RBI single off Blaine Lafin to account for the final margin.
The game was a battle of bullpens from the third inning on, as Ben Lumsden (2-1) picked up the victory by allowing just one baserunner over the final two innings. Edens was officially charged with five runs, four earned, in 2 1/3 innings and dropped to 0-3 on the year.
It was a day for offense, as the teams combined for five home runs, including two for Matt Winn, who had six RBI and fell just one short of tying the school record in that category. It was Winn’s first career multi home-run game. Kyle Lewis hit one of Mercer’s two long balls for his third home run in as many games in the series.
The first inning was a harbinger of things to come, as Mercer struck for four runs, including Lewis’ solo shot to jump out to the 4-0 lead. The Keydets came right back with three of their own in the bottom half, as Winn drilled the first pitch from DJ Johnson to straightaway center for his 10th home run of the year to cut the lead to one, 4-3.
MU pushed the lead to five in the third, however, and knocked out Brandon Barbery in the process. An infield hit and a throwing error put two on and a wild pitch moved the runners up, bringing up Edgeworth, who hit a hard ground ball off Barbery’s right foot. The smash deflected to David Geary for a 1-5-2 putout at home, but after a visit to check on Barbery, Joe singled home a run and Charlie Madden homered to left to make it an 8-3 game. One single later, Barbery was removed for Matthew Eagle.
The Keydets got two of those runs back in the fourth, doing so on a leadoff blast by Stallings and a RBI bad-hop single by Geary to cut the deficit to 8-5. The Bears put single runs on the board in the fifth, sixth and seventh, but two three-run innings for the home team tied the game.
VMI scored three times in the sixth, a rally started with bunt hits by Brandon Angus and Jordan Tarsovich to put runners on the corners with one out. Geary fouled out, but Winn launched a first-pitch fastball over the left-field wall for his second home run of the game, cutting the margin to 10-8.
After the Bears scored in the seventh, Lopez and Tarsovich started the VMI half with back to back singles and Geary singled home a run. Winn was intentionally walked and Collin Fleischer plated a run with a bases-loaded walk. Will Connerley then tied the score with a sacrifice fly, knotting the contest at 11-11.
The Keydets threatened in the eighth, when Stallings led off with a walk and was at second with one out, but Lumsden retired Lopez and Tarsovich to set the stage for the visitors’ ninth-inning rally.
Both starting pitchers were knocked out early, as Johnson lasted just two innings for Mercer and gave up three runs, while Barbery was hit for eight runs, seven earned, in 2 1/3 frames.
VMI baseball will now break for exams and will return to action Friday, playing host to the Spartans of UNCG at 6 p.m. to open the team’s final SoCon home series of the season.
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