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Starkville Regional Information

STARKVILLE, Miss. — After falling 5-3 last night to top-seeded Mississippi State, the Central Arkansas Bears will attempt to extend their season another day and keep their regional title hopes in play as they square off against third-seeded Mercer at 2 p.m. in an elimination game on Saturday at Dudy Noble Field in the Starkville Regional.

It will be the first meeting between Central Arkansas (39-21) and the Mercer Bears (43-17), who won the Atlantic Sun regular season championship this season and earned an at-large berth to the regional. Mercer suffered a 9-4 loss to second-seeded South Alabama on Friday.

Mercer boasts five hitters averaging better than .300, led by Chesny Young at .395. Three Mercer hitters have slugging percentages of at least .527, and four with on-base percentages of at least .425. Nick Backlund leads Mercer with 13 home runs, 67 runs batted in and 22 doubles. Derrick Workman is second on the team with nine home runs and 17 doubles, and has drawn a team-high 35 walks. In all, Mercer has belted 56 home runs and scored 441 runs, a contrast in style to Central Arkansas which has just 21 home runs among its 410 runs and has 468 combined walks and hits by pitch – nearly 100 more than Mercer.

Mercer Season Stats

The Bears will hand the ball to senior left-hander Jeffery Enloe, who sports a 7-5 record with a 3.28 earned run average and has struck out 81 and walked 23 in 104.1 innings. Mercer will likely turn to DJ Johnson, who is 7-2 with a 2.80 ERA, with 66 strikeouts and 16 walks in 83.2 innings.