TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The Mercer University baseball team dropped an extra-innings thriller to Florida State, 5-4, in the opening game of the 2015 NCAA Tallahassee Regional on Friday night at Dick Howser Stadium.
Florida State (42-19) came up with the heroics when it counted, breaking a tie that lasted over seven innings with Josh Delph’s walk-off single in the bottom of the 10th to escape with the win.
Mercer (35-22) took the No. 10 team in the country to the brink on Friday night, nearly upending the regional’s top seed in front of a capacity crowd in Tallahassee.
“It was an outstanding game tonight with both teams battling in a tremendous environment,” said head coach Craig Gibson. “Their pitching staff did a great job late in the game, but we still had some chances to win the game. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to come through with the big play that we needed to pull out the win.”
Despite the loss, Mercer’s bullpen turned in another dominating performance, as the group has given up just two earned runs in its last 19 innings of work. Dimitri Kourtis was tagged with the loss to fall to 3-2 on the year after giving up one run in 1 2/3 innings of work.
Morgan Pittman headlined the Bears’ pitching efforts, tossing 3 2/3 scoreless frames while giving up just one hit in the contest. Mitchell Wade added a scoreless inning in relief for Mercer.
The Bears outhit Florida State, 12-9, in the contest behind a game-high three hits from Charlie Madden. Danny Edgeworth, Howard Joe and Matt Meeder each had two hits for Mercer, which reached double figures in the hits column for the 11th time in its last 15 contests.
After putting together a pair of singles in a scoreless first inning, Mercer took advantage of back-to-back errors by FSU in the second for the game’s first run. Joe reached on a two-out error by the third baseman to start the rally before scoring on another throwing error by the Seminoles to hand the Bears a 1-0 advantage.
Florida State answered in the home half of the inning, as Taylor Wall’s single down the right-field line allowed Ben DeLuzio to score from second to tie the game at 1-1. The Seminoles added two more runs on John Sansone’s double down the left-field line before D.J. Stewart’s RBI groundout pushed their lead to 4-1.
The Bears rallied back in the top of the third, using a great start to the frame to key a three-run inning. Kyle Lewis drove the first pitch of the inning to the wall in straight-away center for a leadoff double.
After Edgeworth’s second hit of the night put runners on the corners, Jackson Ware would start the scoring with a sacrifice fly to deep center field. Madden drove in the second run of the inning on a safety squeeze before Joe tied the game, 4-4, with an RBI single to left field.
Mercer had a great chance to regain the lead in the top of the sixth, as a double by Madden and a single by Joe put runners on the corners with no outs. However, the Bears were not able to break through, as Florida State came through with a big double play and an ensuing strikeout to come out unscathed.
The Seminoles created an opportunity of their own in the bottom of the seventh, taking advantage of a pair of walks to put runners on the corners. Mercer escaped damage, though, as Mitchell Wade recorded the final out of the inning to keep the game tied at 4-4.
Both pitching staffs settled in, though, as neither team found the scoreboard until the Seminoles broke through in the bottom of the 10th. Surprisingly, the Bears were plagued by errors all night, as the SoCon’s leading defensive team committed a season-high five on the night.
Mercer will have a short turnaround, as it takes on third-seeded Auburn on Saturday afternoon at Dick Howser Stadium. First pitch is scheduled for 12:05 p.m.