CHICAGO – Chicago State baseball concluded its season-opening series Monday with a 17-4 defeat at the hands of host Mercer at MU's Claude Smith Field in Macon, Ga. The Bears saw their season record improve to 9-4 while the Cougars dropped to 0-4 on the year.
The home team captured an early 2-0 lead in the first inning thanks to an RBI sacrifice fly by junior Thomas Carroll and senior Michael Langley connected on an RBI single through the left side.
The Bears took advantage of two CSU errors in the third inning to score three unearned runs to increase its lead to 5-0. A two-run home run by sophomore Jacob Tanis highlighted a three-run fourth inning that hiked Mercer's leading margin to 8-0.
CSU got on the board in the top of the fifth when senior Kevin Hussey (Pickering, ON/Olney Central College) (Pickering, Ont.) blasted his first collegiate grand slam off MU reliever Colby Collins to slice its deficit to 8-4, but the Bears scored nine runs in the bottom half of the fifth with a pair of two-RBI doubles from Tanis and sophomore Jason Butts to complete the scoring.
Hussey and senior Patrick Hernandez (Romeoville, IL/Triton CC) (Romeoville, Ill.) each went 1-of-2 to lead Chicago State. Freshman Dayton Dalman (Nashville, IL/Nashville) (Nashville, Ill.) took the loss after giving up eight runs (five earned) on five hits in addition to posting three strikeouts in four innings thrown.
Tanis went 3-of-4 at the plate with four RBI to lead Mercer's offensive output, while sophomore David Randall (2-0) collected the win on the mound after allowing just one hit and struck out three in four innings of work.
The Cougars will be back in action on March 16 as they open the first of four games against Southern Utah as part of the Palm Beach Challenge in Palm Beach, Fla. The start time for the game is set for 7 p.m.
~CSU~
