The Southern Conference's best one-two punch over the final month of the regular season doesn't appear to be slowing down in the postseason. Furman left-hander Grant Schuermann held the SoCon regular season champions to one unearned run over eight innings as the Paladins defeated Mercer 6-1 Thursday in the SoCon Tournament at Fluor Field.
With its second victory in as many days, fourth-seeded Furman doesn't play again until noon Saturday. The Paladins will face the winner of Friday's noon game between No. 3 seed UNC Greensboro and No. 7 seed ETSU.
The day after Will Gaddis won for the seventh time in his last seven appearances, Schuermann extended his streak of not an allowing an earned run to 26 consecutive innings. It was a gutsy performance by Schuermann, who threw a career-high 121 pitches. He scattered nine hits over his eight innings and worked out of several jams to keep the top-seeded Bears (39-16) in check.
"He's got a knack for making a big pitch at a big time for us. None bigger than how he did tonight," Furman coach Brett Harker said. "That's the best outing of his career. ... It was a lot of fun to watch.
"I'm proud of our boys. That's one of the biggest games we've had at Furman in quite some time."
For the second day in a row, a Paladin starter had a nice early cushion to work with as Furman scored four runs in the top of the second. Landon Kay led off the frame with a no-doubt home run, his 11th this season.
One out later, the Paladins (31-26) strung together five consecutive singles. Jake Crawford bounced a groundball past second to score two runs before Sky Overton's groundball single to left made it 4-0 Furman.
Mercer reliever Carter Varga came on in the fourth and struck out the first two hitters before the Paladins got three singles in a row, capped by Carter Grote's run-scoring hit to push the lead to 5-0.
The Bears lone run came in the fifth on a run-scoring groundout that would've been the third out if not for Furman's only error, which opened the inning.
Much like in the fourth, the first two Furman batters in the seventh struck out before three consecutive singles and Mercer's lone error sent home the final run.
Clutch hitting proved to be a key storyline in the game. Furman went 10-for-19 batting with two outs, while Mercer was 1-of-9. With runners in scoring position, the Paladins were 5-for-14, while the Bears went 1-for-12.
Overton and Jason Costa each had three hits to lead Furman, which put up 17 hits and now has 34 in 15 innings at-bat at the tournament.
"I can live with us getting 17 hits every night," Harker said.
Schuermann (7-4) allowed no walks and had five strikeouts. He has 40 strikeouts and one walk over his last seven starts. Over his last five starts, Schuermann has allowed three earned runs in 38 innings (0.71 ERA).
"He's went seven outings with one walk combined and when you do that, you're going to make guys earn every single run they score," Harker said. "If Gaddis is A1, he's A2. ... He's just been special."
As a result of the two wins, Furman gets a day off Friday. Thanks to outstanding starting pitching and hitting, the Paladins have only used three relievers thus far and those three have only worked one inning apiece.
"We feel like we're in a good position. We've got (Matthew) Quarles going Saturday and we feel really good about him," Harker said. "And Gaddis threw 57 pitches (Wednesday), so we feel really good about him (pitching again) as well."
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