On the Diamond: GSU @ Mercer

Who: Mercer University Bears (3-1), competes in the NCAA D-1 Atlantic Sun Conference (A-Sun). Georgia State fans should be familiar with this conference as this was GSU's previous conference before joining the CAA. Mercer is located in Macon, GA.

Previous Season: After earning the A-Sun 2010 Championship title with a 37-22 record, Mercer advanced to the NCAA Atlanta Regionals for the first time in school history. Mercer was eliminated by Alabama after an opening loss to Georgia Tech and a win over Elon.

Mercer at the Plate: After the first four games of the season, Mercer is batting .319 with 11 home runs. Senior outfielder Joe Winker led the way at the plate with a .500 BA, 3 HR's and 7 RBI's. A big key to the game for our pitchers will be to keep guys off base in front of Winker.

Mercer on the Mound: Starting pitcher will be lefty David Randall. This will be his first start, Randall is 0-1 through 2 appearances. Only lasting 1.2 innings, hitters are 4 for 9 against him, he's thrown 1 walk and 1 strikeout. With that said, watchout Panther baserunners. This guy will pick you off if you're not quick to the bag. Hopefully Randall will be what the Panthers lineup needs to get going. If so, it's likely that we'll see middle relief pitcher David Teasley which will prove difficult to our right hand batters. Teasley is a "submarine" style pitcher which is unique and rare to find. His fastball has a forward rotation causing it to sink rather than a typical back spin from an overhand thrower. Right handed hitters will receive many inside pitches if he's on the mound.

GSU at the Plate: The Panthers are batting only .258 as a team with 1 HR. The batters appeared to be very selective at the plate during the opening series. The opposing pitcher wants to go out and throw a first pitch strike, they may have to jump on a few more of these against Mercer. Micowski is off to a slow start with only 2 hits in 11 at-bats. He needs to get on base and collect those steals in this game. This brings up something the Panthers have done very well so far, stealing bases. The runners are 11 for 12 in stolen base attempts. While this may sound like a demeaning summary of the offense so far, the team is 3-0 and has scored 17 runs while batting below their abilities and this is because of efficiency with base runners.

GSU on the Mound: Pitching, the shining star of the opening series. Senior lefty Aidan Francis will get his first start of the season today. He went 6-3 with a 4.96 ERA in 2010. Francis has great control, owning the lowest walks per inning number (.28/IP) from the 2010 pitching staff. His 2010 walks and hits per inning averaged 1.5 and almost 1 strikeout per inning. Francis will need to 1) throw first pitch strikes, 2) maintain his low walk numbers and 3) keep Winker from having RBI opportunities. He'll be successful if he can do this. When Francis hands the ball over to the relief guys, it will be going to good hands. Mercer may have had a great showing by their relievers, but GSU had an outstanding showing by theirs. Zero earned runs off 3 hits through 9 innings of work for the relievers.

Mercer has proven to be a great matchup during the Coach Frady years thus far. Since 2007 season, GSU is 4-5 against Mercer but 3-1 on the road. This is game 1 of 3 Tuesday matchups for the 2011 season. I think the Panthers can pull out a win here if they can push 6 runs across the plate. Get 'em boys!