CHARLESTON – Charleston Southern dropped the weekend finale to Mercer on Sunday by a final score of 4-3. The game was played at Nielsen Field, CSU's home field, after the first two contests were each on the campus of Mercer.
 
In the first, both teams were able to scratch across their first runs of the day off sacrifice flies. The Bucs got theirs off Chandler Tuupo's bat bringing Kain Collins home. In the second, Mercer retook the lead at 3-1 with an RBI single up the middle and another sacrifice fly.
 
Charleston Southern once again tied the game, this time at three apiece in the bottom of the third. Tuupo provided a two RBI single to center that scored Blake Edgmon and Collins.
 
The Bears were able to get the final go-ahead run in the fifth on single up the middle, bringing the score to 4-3, what it would be for the remainder of the game.
 
At the plate, the Bucs compiled three hits, a walk and three hit by pitches. Collins, Tuupo and Lew Rice each had a hit with Tuupo collecting all three RBIs. Collins swiped a pair of bags in the contest as well.
 
On the mound, Charleston Southern used five different pitchers. Tait Robertson had the start, tossing the first 4.1 innings. The bullpen arms combined for the final 4.2 frames and did not allow a run to score the rest of the way. Ryan DuSang threw 0.2, Camden Chalfant had 2.1, Christian Krause with 0.2 and Kyle Lewis with the final 1.0.
 
The Buccaneers will return to Nielsen Field @ CSU Ballpark this weekend for a series against Longwood from Thursday through Saturday. The first pitches for Thursday and Friday are slated for a 6 p.m. start while Saturday will be at 1 p.m. ahead of the Easter weekend.