Baseball Southern Conference

Mercer?s Lewis, Nyquist Sweep Weekly SoCon Honors

SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Mercer outfielder Kyle Lewis and right-hander Eric Nyquist have been named the Southern Conference player and pitcher of the week, respectively, for all games March 16-22. The selections are made by the league office.

Lewis hit .562 with two home runs, two doubles, six RBIs and seven runs scored as the Bears went 4-0 last week, beating Georgia and sweeping ETSU to open SoCon play. Lewis hit safely in all four contests, recording multiple hits three times.

In the Bears’ 16-4 rout of Georgia in Macon, Ga., on Tuesday, Lewis went 2-for-3 with a double, a run, an RBI single and a sacrifice fly.

In Mercer’s first-ever SoCon series, Lewis went 7-for-13 to lead the Bears to the three-game sweep. In Friday’s opener, a 2-0 Mercer win, Lewis was 1-for-3 and scored what would prove to be the winning run in the fourth inning. The sophomore from Snellville, Ga., followed that up with a monster day in Saturday’s doubleheader, recording three hits in each game. In game one, Lewis scored three times, recording a walk, two singles and a solo home run as Mercer topped the Bucs 11-5. In game two, he fell a triple short of the cycle and hit a walk-off solo home run with two outs in the ninth to lift the Bears to the 10-9 win.

Also nominated: Connor Walsh (The Citadel), Jordan Simpson (Furman), Collin Woody (UNCG), Austin Edens (Samford), Reece Strong (Western Carolina) and Conor Clancey (Wofford).

Nyquist played a big role in Mercer’s sweep of ETSU, as the senior hurler tossed a three-hit shutout in Friday’s 2-0 win. Working with a slim margin for error and facing ETSU ace Jimmy Nesselt, Nyquist retired the first 11 Bucs he faced and did not allow a hit until a bunt single broke up his no-hit bid with two outs in the fifth. He would scatter two more singles over the final four innings and walked two in the contest.

Nyquist (3-1), who needed just 98 pitches on the night, struck out seven batters and allowed just one base-runner to reach second. The Alpharetta, Ga., native leads the SoCon with a 1.17 ERA and .122 opposing batting average.

The weekly honor is the second in three weeks for Nyquist, who also earned the award on March 9.

Mercer (15-11, 3-0 SoCon) heads to Athens, Ga., on Tuesday to complete the season home-and-home series with Georgia before heading to Greenville, S.C., for a three-game SoCon set at Furman (11-11, 1-2 SoCon) this weekend.

Also nominated: James Reeves (The Citadel), Grant Schuermann (Furman), Ryan Clark (UNCG), Andres Gracia (Samford), Brandon Barbery (VMI), Korey Anderson (Western Carolina) and Matthew Milburn (Wofford).

2015 SoCon Players of the Week
Feb. 16    Trey York, ETSU
Feb. 23    Damon Waller, Samford
March 2    Trey York, ETSU
March 9    Zac MacAneney, UNCG
March 16    Kevin Phillips, ETSU
March 23    Kyle Lewis, Mercer

2015 SoCon Pitchers of the Week
Feb. 16    B.J. Nobles, Western Carolina
Feb. 23    Ryan Askew, Mercer
March 2    Adam Scott, Wofford
March 9    Eric Nyquist, Mercer
March 16    Luke Leftwich, Wofford
March 23    Eric Nyquist, Mercer

-www.SoConSports.com-