CHARLESTON, S.C. - Mercer bunched together nine hits and all four of its runs in the middle innings to squeeze out a 4-3 victory over The Citadel on Friday at Riley Park, evening the Southern  Conference series at a game apiece.

The teams play the rubber game Saturday at 1 p.m., and the contest can be seen on the SoCon Digital Network. All members of the Kidet Club will be invited onto the field after the game for an Easter Egg hunt sponsored by Dominos.

The Bulldogs (15-14, 1-4 SoCon) took a 2-0 lead in the second off Mercer starter Grant Papelian on an RBI double by William Kinney and run-scoring single by Jacob Watcher. But The Citadel was limited to only one run the rest of the way, that coming on a Drew Ellis solo homer leading off the bottom of the sixth.

By that time, the Bears (19-13, 6-2) had built a 4-2 lead. Trey Truitt singled in a run in the fourth for Mercer's first run of the series, and Jackson Ware produced the tying run with a double in the fifth.

A ground out with runners at second and third and nobody out in the sixth gave the Bears the lead, and a single by Matt Meeder pushed the Mercer advantage to two runs with an RBI single.

The Ellis homer was his sixth of the season and cut The Citadel deficit in half. Jason Smith singled with two outs in the inning to extend his streak of reaching base to 20 straight games, and the Bulldogs also got base hits in the seventh and ninth but were unable to push across the tying run.

JP Sears worked into the sixth and was charged with the loss, dropping to 4-3 on the year. The freshman lefty allowed 10 hits and all four runs while striking out seven. Austin Mason took over in the seventh and allowed one hit with four strikeouts in three shutout innings.

One night after James Reeves threw a no-hitter against Mercer, the Bears quickly made sure it wouldn't happen again when Meeder doubled off Sears on the first pitch of the game.

Papelian, the reigning SoCon Pitcher of the Week, went six innings and earned the victory to move to 4-1. He allowed six hits and three runs, walked three and fanned three. Dimitri Kourtis got the last four outs for his second save.