MACON -- Georgia State rallied with three runs in the ninth inning and brought the tying run to the plate but fell at Mercer 14-11 on a chilly evening at OrthoGeorgia Park in Macon.

Second baseman Daino Deas had three hits and three runs batted in for the Panthers (3-9), and Elian Merejo homered and drove in two. Enrique Ferrer had three of the GSU's season-high 16 hits, while Griffin Cheney, Brandon Bell and Josh Smith added two hits each.

Georgia State took an early 2-0 lead on Ferrer's sacrifice fly in the second inning and Jake Corso's run-scoring single in the third.

But Mercer scored five in the third and fourth in the fourth, including a pair of home runs, to take a 9-2 lead.

With GSU trailing 11-3, the Panthers began to chip away, starting with Deas' two-out, two-run single in the sixth, Merejo led off the seventh inning with a solo homer, his team-leading third of the season, and then with two outs, freshman Chase Frady came off the bench and ripped a two-run, pinch-hit double to right field to make it 13-8.

Down 14-8 with one out in the ninth inning, four straight Panthers recorded hits and five in a row reached base. Smith blooped a single into shallow right field for the first run, and then Kalen Puckett smacked a double into the right field corner to bring home another. After Tanner Gallman was hit by pitch to load the bases, Deas' groundout brought the Panthers within three runs before Mercer recorded the final out.

Georgia State returns home to host ETSU for a weekend series, beginning Friday at 4 p.m. in a game that will air on PantherVision on GeorgiaStateSports.com and the GSU mobile app.