Mercer baseball hope for rebound in 2025 season with help of SoCon Preseason POTY

After a record-breaking football season and during the tail end of a basketball year featuring two brand-new coaches, one of Mercer’s most consistent programs will take the field as its baseball team begins the 2025 season.

Led by head coach Craig Gibson since he took over in 2004, the Bears won at least 35 games in every full season from 2010 to 2023 to establish one of the most consistent programs in the country, producing some MLB Draft talents — 31 across Gibson’s tenure, to be exact, with 2020 Rookie of the Year winner Kyle Lewis probably the most notable — along the way.

But Mercer faltered for the first time in a long time last season, finishing 29-29 with an uncharacteristic 6-14 mark in Southern Conference play. 

Though the team pieced together an impressive conference tournament run as the No. 7 seed in an eight-team field — they defeated the No. 6, No. 3 and No. 4 teams in high-scoring affairs before bowing out — it was still an unexpected down year.

“Our roster’s a little fluid, we have some new faces, but we do have a core of guys that are really talented,” Gibson said Monday at Mercer’s athletics press conference. “I was doing an interview with The Athletic and I told ‘em, ‘I think anytime you bring in all the new faces, it really helps to have that core of returning guys.'”

The talent should be there for the Bears, as it has been for the past decade and change. Outfielder Ty Dalley was named the Southern Conference’s Preseason Player of the Year. Dalley and three other Mercer players appeared on the preseason All-SoCon team.

“I think we returned probably the best position player in the league,” Gibson said of his star outfielder. “Our first baseman’s a 17 home run guy, outstanding player, probably a draft guy. I think we have the best shortstop in the league, Bradley Frye… I really feel good about our core of
returning guys.”

Dalley hit .316/.388/.693 in 2024, slugging 21 home runs and 18 doubles while becoming the first Bear to drive in more than 70 runs since Lewis did it in 2016. With such a breakout season in the transfer portal age, some suspected Dalley might head elsewhere for the 2025 season.

“I knew we had a bunch of core players coming back, and I knew if we stuck together we could be something special… I think we can put up some numbers and pitch and hit really well in our league, and perform well enough to win the SoCon,” Dalley said. “I would say our chemistry this year is really really good, off the field is where that starts… we’ve bonded with each other as a team.”

Gibson also mentioned pitcher Colton Cosper and outfielder Ely Brown as key returning names. The bullpen was also a strength, according to the head coach.

“We also have some new talented guys, probably one of the most talented groups I’ve had the opportunity to coach here, but we’ll see what they do in the fire on Friday night,” Gibson said. “We’re excited.”

Coming from Gibson, that should mean a lot. He’s set the bar high in his career and hopes the 2025 season will be a return to form for the program.

“I haven’t done a good job with the roster the last two years, it’s my fault. We’ve sort of bottomed out the last few years, I haven’t manipulated the portal the way I should have, but I think we’re in a better spot this year,” Gibson said.

The head coach put it plainly: he wants another Southern Conference title. Mercer hasn’t snagged one since 2019 — a six-year gap between titles wouldn’t be anything to sneeze at for some programs, but Mercer’s expectations have mutated with Gibson’s longtime consistency.

While the skipper takes some of the blame for that, he also said the team had been “snakebitten” on multiple occasions since that last conference trophy, with everything from an oddball COVID-19 season to bad luck with the pitching rotation schedule hurting them in the conference tournament.

“We look forward to getting started on Friday, and we look forward to hopefully making a run in May,” he said. 

The season opener Friday will come against the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and begin a three-game weekend series. The Panthers are in the Horizon League with teams like Cleveland State, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay and others. Milwaukee notched a 19-36 record last season and a 13-17 mark in Horizon League play.

The Bears follow up the home series with a midweek trip to Kennesaw State Wednesday, then come back home to start a series with Kent State on Feb. 21.