MACON, Ga. – Mercer scored first and put the game away late with an eight-run eighth inning on the way to a 12-1 Southern Conference win over UNCG Friday evening at Claude Smith Field. The Spartans fall to 17-20 overall and 8-8 in SoCon play while the Bears improve to 26-16 and 11-4.

Senior Eric Kalbfleisch recorded two of UNCG's seven hits and scored the Spartans' only run. Classmate Aaron Wright drew three walks and had a hit. Kyle Lewis paced Mercer with three hits and four RBI.

Junior RHP Ryan Clark dropped to 6-4 overall as he tossed 6 1/3 innings and surrendered four runs on six hits with five strikeouts and three walks. Eric Nyquist improved to 5-2 after throwing 5 2/3 innings allowed just one run on seven hits with three walks and five strikeouts.

MacAneney led off the game with a single through the left side before Wright drew a walk with one away. A groundout moved the runners into scoring position but a strikeout ended the threat. Mercer put up a threat of its own in the bottom of the first, getting runners on first and second with one out, but Clark induced a fly out to center and recorded a strikeout to get out of trouble.

The Bears scored the game's initial run in the bottom of the second as Trey Truitt drew a two-out walk and scored on a double to deep right center by Charlie Madden. Danny Edgeworth gave the home side a 2-0 lead via a RBI double in the bottom of the third before Kalbfleisch singled to begin the fourth and later scored on a wild pitch to cut the deficit in half.

With UNCG runners on first and second with two away in the top of the fifth, sophomore Jake Kusz got a hold of one and looked to drive it out of the park but he came up just short as the ball was caught against the wall in left center.

Mercer scored single runs in the sixth and seventh innings before putting it away in the eighth with eight runs on four hits and a Spartan error to account for the final margin. Senior Nick Chapman drew a walk to lead off the top of the ninth but the next three UNCG batters were retired to close out the contest.

The Spartans will look to even the series Saturday when they take on the Bears at 2 p.m.

Keep up with the UNCG baseball team all year long by logging on to www.uncgspartans.com and following the Spartans' official Twitter accounts @UNCGBaseball/@uncgsports.