Mercer Baseball Outlasts Lincoln County
Mercer Shortstop Russell Sims backhands a ground ball on the edge of the infield Wednesday in Mercer’s 3-2 win over Lincoln County.
After falling behind 2-0 to the Patriots of Lincoln County through two innings of play Wednesday night, the Mercer County baseball team was able to bounce back and keep their seven-game winning streak alive.
“You know, I don’t know what it was, but what I do know is we are two weeks from post season and when you don’t play for a while I think you should be busting out to play, and I don’t think we were mentally ready to play tonight,” said Mercer Head Coach Jeremy Shope on his team’s lackluster start. “We can’t have those kind of outings right now. It’s two weeks from post season. It is a win, and wins are always good to get, but I’m looking for much more from this team than just wins right now.”
Titans starting pitcher Jackson Stoeckinger struggled with his control early in the game hitting batters in the first and second innings. After striking out Lincoln’s leadoff batter Austin Smith, Stoeckinger struck Austin Greer with a pitch, surrendering first base. Greer advanced to second on a wild pitch before reaching home on a Chance Madden RBI single to shallow center field giving Lincoln County a 1-0 lead after one inning.
Lincoln starting pitcher Logan Estes made short work of the Titans in the bottom of the inning, forcing Allex Gooch and Stoeckinger into pop fly outs before striking out Russell Sims to end the inning.
The Patriots’ Aaron Estes opened the second inning with a single, beating out the throw from Sims at shortstop. Stoeckinger put runners at first and second base with no outs, hitting Logan Estes with a pitch. T.J. Torres advanced Aaron and Logan Estes with a sacrifice bunt before Taylor Edwards drove in Aaron Estes with an RBI single to shallow left field.
