What You Need to Know:
• Joey Roach tied the game with a ninth-inning single and Jaylen Woullard brought home the go-ahead run with a walk as Georgia State rallied for a 10-6 win at Mercer.
• Jack Thompson's three-run homer gave the Panthers a 4-1 lead in the 6th, and freshman reliever Chris Mejias earned his first win.
• GSU swept the season series from Mercer, 4-3 and 10-6.
MACON, GA. -- Joey Roach's game-tying single started a five-run ninth inning as Georgia State rallied for a 10-6 victory at Mercer Wednesday at Claude Smith Field, giving the Panthers (13-12) a sweep in the annual season series.
After Mercer (16-10) scored three runs in the bottom of the eighth to take a 6-5 lead, James Clements led off the top of the ninth with a single up the middle and the Jarrett Hood drew a walk off Austin Cox (1-1). That brought Roach to the plate, and the senior catcher delivered his third hit of the night with an opposite field single to left to score the tying run.
Jack Thompson was hit by a pitch to load the bases, and then Woullard drew a bases-loaded walk to bring home the go-ahead run. Luke Leonard followed with another walk for another run, and then Will Kilgore laced a two-run single through the right side to put the Panthers ahead 10-6.
Freshman reliever Chris Mejias (1-0), who struck out All-American Kyle Lewis with two runners on base to end the eighth inning, pitched a scoreless bottom of the ninth to earn his first collegiate win.
"How spectacular was that last at-bat by Joey Roach?" head coach Greg Frady said. "Our senior captain really came through. I'm glad to see our team come back. This is something that we've needed offensively, and I'm glad to see us put that number of the board."
With the game tied at 1-1, Georgia State started a two-out rally with back-to-back singles by Hood and Roach. Then Thompson, the sophomore first baseman, worked the count full and then blasted a three-run home run to center field to put the Panthers ahead 4-1.
"It was my fifth curve ball of the at-bat so I had seen it a couple of times and I was really focused on staying on that back foot. I was able to get the hands out, and the ball carried out of here," Thompson said of the home run, his third of the season. "I was little nervous because I saw Kyle [Lewis] tracking it, and when he jumped, I thought he might have come down with it."
Mercer answered with two runs in the bottom of the sxith to pull within one. The Panthers scored an insurance run in the top of the eighth on Woullard's run-scoring groundout before allowing the Bears to take the lead in the bottom of the frame.
Roach finished 3-for-5 with one RBI and three runs scored. Hood also scored three runs, and Thompson drove in three, while Woullard and Kilgore had two RBI each.
Mejias was the sixth Georgia State pitcher of the night. Starter Devin Vainer turned in a strong outing, pitching 4.2 innings in which Trey Truitt's leadoff homer was the only hit and run he allowed. The lefty struck out five.
Truitt and Danny Edgeworth hit solo homers for Mercer, which leads the nation in home runs, but the GSU pitching staff held the Bears to six hits on the night.
