Mercer entered its home game against Georgia Southern Tuesday night in Macon with a sterling 35-7 record and the national lead in wins.
    Thanks to the Eagles, the rest of the country had a night to play catch-up.
    Georgia Southern scored two runs in the top of the first, bounced back quickly from a Mercer three-spot in the bottom half, and proceeded to unleash on Bears pitching the rest of the night, easily strutting out of Macon with a 15-7 victory.
    Jordan Wren was just about all the Eagles (27-14) needed offensively. The senior right fielder launched a two-run home run to right center in the third off of Mercer (35-8) starter Sawyer Gipson-Long. Wren did himself one better with a three-run shot to right off of Andrew Kane in the next inning before topping off his career-best 8 RBI night with a three-run double off of Carter Varga in the seventh.
    "It just happened to be one of those nights. The guys at the top of the lineup were swinging the bat very well,” GS coach Rodney Hennon said. “Mitchell Golden was on base a lot and Jordan Wren had some big hits for us.”
    Eagle starter Seth Shuman surrendered three runs to Mercer in the first in one of his few rough innings of the season. But the true freshman rebounded nicely, tossing five innings and allowing just one more run while striking out six. Shuman earned the victory for Georgia Southern and is now tied for second on the team with four wins.
    “We got a good effort from Seth Shuman,” Hennon said. “They had some opportunities with men on base, and we were fortunate to make some big pitches and big plays in some of those situations."
    Georgia Southern took the early lead when Evan McDonald singled through the left side to plate Mitchell Golden and Ryan Cleveland. Mercer manufactured a run in the bottom half before Charlie Madden claimed the lead for the Bears with a two-run shot.
    Wren stole the advantage back with his third inning homer and a Steven Curry RBI single made it 5-3 ahead of Wren’s fourth inning blast. The pair repeated their production in the seventh as Curry notched another RBI single ahead of Wren’s bases-clearing double.
    Logan Baldwin put the cherry on top of the Eagles’ win, rocketing his first career home run - a three-run blast - over the wall in right in the eighth inning.
    Mercer rallied for three runs in the ninth as the end of the Georgia Southern bullpen recorded the final outs, but it had been clear for over an hour that the Bears wouldn’t be adding to their impressive win total on Tuesday.
    Georgia Southern will get a chance to keep the momentum going as both teams catch a bus to Statesboro for the back end of the home-and-home series.