Macon, Ga. –
Pascanel Ferreras capped a five-run sixth inning with a grand slam home run as Western Carolina played opportunistic baseball on Saturday to even its best-of-three Southern Conference series with Mercer with a 9-4 victory over the Bears at OrthoGeorgia Park.
WCU (11-15, 2-3 SoCon) homered twice in the winning effort with
James Hinson giving the Catamounts the early lead with a first-inning solo homer and Ferreras circling the bases on his fifth homer of the season while extending his team RBI lead. The Catamounts also benefited from eight walks with two coming in bases-loaded situations to drive in runs.
The series rubber match is scheduled for a 1 p.m. first pitch with the only coverage through live stats by StatBroadcast,
available through a link at CatamountSports.com.
Trailing 2-1 after three complete, the Catamounts took the lead for good with a three-spot in the top of the fourth inning.
Nate Stocum drew a bases-loaded walk to tie the game at two apiece ahead of
Cole Jones who laced a two-run single to right field, plating
Jack Spyke and
Zach Ketterman for the 4-2 lead through four complete.
Mercer (18-10, 3-2 SoCon) cut the WCU advantage back to one with a solo home run in the bottom of the fifth inning before the Catamounts pulled out to the 9-3 lead with the five-run sixth inning.
Brandon Butterworth drew a bases-loaded walk to plate the first run with Ferreras clearing the paths with his grand slam.
The Bears got a marker back in the bottom of the eighth on a run-scoring single to provide the final tally.
Jones collected two of WCU's five base hits, finishing 2-for-4 with two RBI. Ferreras was 1-for-4, reaching twice with an HBP and the big swing on the grand slam homer to left field. Stocum finished 1-for-4 with a run-scoring walk with Hinson reaching a team-best three times including a 1-for-3 effort with the home run, adding a walk and HBP.
After missing his scheduled start a week ago, sophomore
Matt Schepel (2-1) returned to the mound on Saturday to score the victory. The Matthews, N.C., product struck out three against a walk in five complete innings, holding the Bears to three runs on six hits.
Nick Hyde struck out four in three relief innings, allowing a run on two hits, with freshman
Ryan White working around a single in tossing a scoreless ninth inning.
Mercer starter Ryan Lobus (3-2) took the loss after allowing four runs on just two base hits but walked four against four strikeouts in 3.2 innings. Garrett Sloan was tagged for five runs over two relief innings with Caleb Bohn also walking four in relief.
Eric Toth and Jackson Cherry both hit solo home runs for Mercer which tallied nine base hits, two by Cherry (2-for-3). The remaining six hits were scattered between six different batters, all coming as singles.
WCU is scheduled to start redshirt sophomore LHP
Dylan Wheeler (2-0, 1.23 ERA) with Mercer countering with redshirt senior RHP Josh Farmer (2-2, 4.41 ERA).
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