TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Jacky Miles, Jr. recorded his third hit of the day at the right time, as his RBI single, to right field, with one out in the 11th inning scored Alec Wong to give Florida A&M (27-18, 16-5 MEAC) a 7-6 victory over Mercer (30-19, 14-7 SoCon) at Moore-Kittles Field on Tuesday.
It was the second straight win for the Rattlers in extra innings. Alec Wong had a strong offensive day at the plate as he went 5-for-6 with a home run, two RBI and three runs scored. After striking out in his first at bat, Wong recorded five straight hits, including a solo home run in his second at bat to record the first five-hit day for FAMU since 2010. The last Rattler to have five hits in a game was Tobi Adeyemi against Jackson State on March 6, 2010.
It was the second straight game that Wong scored the game-winning run in extra innings and the 25th game of the season that saw the Rattlers record 10 or more hits in a game. Dylan Dillard (2-for-6), Brian Davis (2-for-4) and Miles, Jr. (3-for-6) each had multi-hit performances for Florida A&M.
Hunter Fillingim (3-1) picked up the win in relief after pitching a scoreless top of the 11th inning with no hits and two strikeouts. Ryan Anderson made the start for Florida A&M and pitched a no-decision, while working a season-long 6.1 innings with a career-high six strikeouts.
FAMU scored first on a solo home run from Ben Ellzey, his third of the season, in the second inning for an early 1-0 lead.
The Rattlers would score two more runs in the third inning to push their lead to 3-0. With one out, Wong hit his fourth home run of the season, a solo shot over the fence in left for the first run of the inning. Brian Davis then walked with two outs, advanced to second on a passed ball before scoring on an RBI single into center field from Jacky Miles, Jr.
Mercer cut into the A&M lead with two runs in the top of the fourth inning that made the score 3-2. Blaise Lezynski singled to right field with one out and scored from first on a triple to center from Matt Meeder. Jackson Ware then plated Meeder from third on an RBI double down the left line.
Florida A&M answered right back with a single run in the home half of the fourth inning to make the score 4-2. AJ Elkins led off with a walk, took second on a wild pitch and moved to third on a groundout to second from Ryan Hutson. Elkins later came home to score, with two outs, on an RBI single to center field by Wong.
The Bears took their first lead of the game, at 6-4, with four runs in the seventh inning. A hit-by-pitch to Meeder and a walk to Ware to start the inning put runners on first and second with no outs. Both runners advanced on a sac bunt from Trey Truitt before the Rattlers made a pitching change with runners on second and third with one out. Edgeworth then reached on catcher’s interference to load the bases. Another pitching change saw David Ogilvie come in to pitch to Kyle Lewis for FAMU. Lewis singled off the pitcher, but a throwing error by Ogilvie to first allowed two runs to score and Lewis to advance to third. Edgeworth was thrown out at home on the play on a great throw by Davis. Charlie Madden then gave the Bears the lead with a two-run home run to left center field.
FAMU was able to the game at 6-6 with two runs on four hits in the bottom of the eighth inning. Wong, Dylan Dillard and Davis recorded three straight singles to open the inning and load the bases. Miles, Jr. followed with the Rattlers’ fourth straight hit, this time to right field, to score Wong from third. Ellzey then tied the game at 6-6 with a sac fly up against the wall in left center field as Dillard came home for the tying run.
Mercer had a huge opportunity in the top of the 10th inning as it worked the bases loaded with one out, but a pop up to first by Lewis and a fly out to center by Madden flew out to center field stranded the scoring opportunity for the Bears.
The Rattlers had their chance and took advantage of it in the bottom of the 11th inning. Wong led off with his fifth straight hit and went to second on a failed pickoff attempt as the first baseman wasn’t able to catch the throw over from the pitcher. Davis was then intentionally walked to set up the potential double play, but Miles, Jr. took a 2-0 pitch into right field to score Wong from second for the winning run.
Conrad Bloom (4-3) pitched the final 4.1 innings of relief for Mercer, but suffered the loss after allowing the game-winning run in the 11th inning. Bloom only allowed the one run (unearned) on five hits with four strikeouts and one walk.
Florida A&M and Mercer conclude the two-game mid-week series on Wednesday at 4:00 PM at Moore-Kittles Field. Fans can listen live in Tallahassee on WTAL 1450 AM and online at WTAL1450.com. Just click on the “Listen” link at the bottom of the page.
As always, fans can follow Rattler Baseball on Twitter @BaseballFAMU and on Facebook. Live Stats are also availableon the baseball schedule page of FAMUAthletics.com.
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