GEORGIA STATE (8-6) vs. MERCER (12-3) / UNC ASHEVILLE (5-10)
Tuesday, March 10, 6 p.m. (ESPN+)  |  Wednesday, March 11, 4 p.m.
GSU Baseball Complex

After a weekend sweep of North Alabama, Georgia State hosts a pair of midweek games against in-state foe Mercer (Tuesday, 6 p.m., ESPN+) and UNC Asheville (Wednesday, 4 p.m.). These are the Panthers' final tune-ups before Sun Belt Conference play opens this weekend, when GSU hosts South Alabama.

LEADING OFF

>Georgia State won three straight over North Alabama, each in a different way. The Panthers rallied on Friday and won 6-5 on a walk-off wild pitch in the bottom of the ninth. Saturday's game was a 9-4 victory behind a grand slam and six RBI from Ryan Glass. In Sunday's pitchers' duel, freshmen hurlers Chad Treadway and Cameron Jones combined to pitch seven scoreless innings, and Jones broke a scoreless tie with an RBI-triple in the seventh, sending GSU to a 3-1 victory.

>First-year head coach Brad Stromdahl took over the Georgia State program after seven seasons as the head coach at Georgia Gwinnett, where he started the program from scratch in 2013 and compiled a record of 328-104. He led the Grizzlies to the Avista-NAIA World Series three times, including the last two years. Before going to Georgia Gwinnett in November 2011, Stromdahl spent five seasons (2007-11) as an assistant coach at Georgia State.

>Senior outfielder Elian Merejo leads the Sun Belt with a .426 batting average while ranking second in the league in home runs (5), .slugging (.796) and on-base percentage (.537). He has walked 13 times, including five intentional walks.

>Merejo was named Sun Belt Player of the Week on Feb. 17 after going 7-for-11 with two homers, two doubles, seven RBI and seven runs scored as the Panthers opened the season with wins over 2019 NCAA Regional team Cincinnati, St. John's and Saint Peters.

>One of the top freshmen in the Sun Belt Conference, shortstop Will Mize is hitting .380 and ranks fifth in the league with 14 RBI. 

>In the sweep of North Alabama, sophomore reliever Joseph Brandon picked up a win in the Friday night walk-off and a save in Sunday's 3-1 victory.

>Georgia State freshmen hurlers have earned four wins and a save. Five freshmen (Cameron Jones, Chandler Dawson, Duncan Lutz, Chad Treadway and Brandon Haston) have combined for a 2.70 ERA with 56 strikeouts in 46.2 innings.

>Freshman righty Chad Treadway leads the Panthers with a 2.20 ERA and 23 strikeouts in 16.1 innings. He made his first start Sunday vs. North Alabama and pitched five scoreless, allowing just two hits with six strikeouts.

>Freshman reliever Cameron Jones earned a win vs. 2019 NCAA regional team Cincinnati and a save vs. St. John's in his first two collegiate appearances. The lefty pitched 3.2 innings scoreless out of the bullpen, allowing just one hit while striking out four. In the top of the 10th inning against Cincinnati, he pitched a rare Immaculate Inning, striking out the side on nine pitches, to set up the Panthers' walk-off in the bottom half.

>The Panthers have won three games in their final at-bat with 10-inning wins over Cincinnati (9-9, walk-off) and at Western Carolina (10-9) and 6-5 vs. North Alabama (9th-inning walk-off).

SERIES NOTES:

>Mercer is Georgia State's most frequent opponent as the two schools have played 119 times since 1967. Every year that GSU has fielded a baseball team, it has played Mercer at least once.

>Last season, the two teams split a pair of games. Mercer won 14-11 in Macon, and GSU captured the rematch in Atlanta 4-2.

>Mercer leads the series 68-51, but Georgia State has won five of the last seven meetings.

>Brad Stromdahl is facing Mercer as  head coach for the first time, but during his tenure as a GSU assistant coach, he helped the Panthers to a 6-3 mark against the Bears from 2007-11.

>Georgia State last faced UNC Asheville in 2013, when the Panthers swept a pair of games in Atlanta, 12-3 and 13-5. GSU has won seven in a row over the Bulldogs and leads the all-time series 11-4.