MACON, Ga. – The Presbyterian College baseball team dropped the first game of its weekend series against Mercer on Friday night, 12-1.
PC moves to 0-5 while Mercer improves to 6-1.
Brandon Martin (Gray Court, S.C.) posted his first collegiate hit and Andrew Williams (Augusta, Ga.) scored PC's lone run.
Mercer used four home runs to take a seven-run lead midway through the game.
Starting pitcher Bud Jeter (Columbia, S.C.) struck out five in four innings and gave up five runs on four hits to take his second loss of the season.
Mercer's Nick Backlund drove in three runs and went two-for-four at the plate. Starting pitcher Brandon Love gave up one hit and one run over six innings.
PC manufactured a run in the first inning to take an early lead. Williams and Jay Lizanch (Greer, S.C.) took eight straight balls to put two aboard with nobody out. A fielder's choice moved Williams to third and a double steal brought the redshirt junior home to lead by one, 1-0.
Jeter and the Blue Hose defense kept Mercer off of the scoreboard until the third, when the Bears used a three-run home run from Nick Backlund to go ahead by two, 3-1.
Gaines homered in the fourth to bring in two more, followed by home runs from Travis Benn and David Reid-Foley in the fifth to give Mercer a 8-1 lead heading into the sixth.
Mercer loaded the bases in the sixth but only scored one run on a Blue Hose error.
The Bears added a one run in the seventh and a pair in the eighth to win, 12-1.
The two sides meet on Saturday for the second game of the three-game series. First pitch is slated for 1 p.m.
Mercer 12, Presbyterian College 1 (Feb 24, 2012 at Macon, Ga.)
--------------------------------------------------------
Presbyterian College 100 000 000 - 1 2 2 (0-5)
Mercer.............. 003 231 12X - 12 11 3 (6-1)
--------------------------------------------------------
Pitchers: Presbyterian College - JETER, Bud; WHITE, Chad(5); WRIGHT, Kelly(6); CORBIN, Tim(7);
NODELMAN, Matt(8) and MICKLON, Tony; PACE, Jordan. Mercer - LOVE; KOURTIS(7); WADE(9) and
REID-FOLEY; BULLARD; STILES.
Win-LOVE(1-0) Loss-JETER, Bud(0-2) T-3:01 A-235
HR MER - GAINES (3); BACKLUND (3); BENN (2); REID-FOLEY (1).
Weather: cloudy and windy
CORBIN, T. faced 1 batter in the 8th.
