Running the gauntlet: How Mercer softball beat to odds to win its first-ever SoCon championship

Everyone loves an underdog story. As it turns out, that includes the underdogs themselves.

Every team finds motivation their own way. Plenty of coaches will discuss the challenges they’ve faced to get to a certain moment in an effort to get their locker room pumped. “Adversity” has become a popular word in sports, as has the phrase “Why not us?” in reference to a team trying to beat the odds.

Whether or not that scrappy team mentality is real or manufactured — like Alabama coach Nick Saban claiming people counted out the Crimson Tide, for example — varies.

There are no such doubts about the Mercer softball team, however: the Bears are the real deal.

Mercer (38-14) proved as much when it tore its way through a gauntlet of eight games to win the 2025 Southern Conference Tournament last week, going 8-1 and defeating regular season champion Chattanooga twice in a row to hoist the conference trophy for the first time in the program’s 40-year
history.

Adversity is everywhere you look on the Bears’ championship roster, according to head coach Lindsay Fico.

“So many players on our team had some sort of hurdle to get past, there was something they had to work through,” said Fico, who was hired as Mercer’s head softball coach in 2021. “That’s why I was so emotional after the championship. It just felt like everything we worked for paid off. Things like this build programs. We went through this as a team.”

Pitcher Grace Taylor, who won the tournament’s MVP award with a stunning 0.76 ERA in 18 and 1/3 innings pitched, had only recently come back to the diamond after a serious injury.

“Seeing her stats, I couldn’t believe how good she was. That and her energy… there’s a bit of a different gear when she’s in the circle,” Fico said of her ace. “We know how special GT can be, and she knows it too. That was probably the first time since she came back where she was all the way in her zone. That gets the team going.”

Then there were the team’s freshmen. The Bears had three first-year players make the All-Tournament team. Each member of the trio made a key error at some point during the year, Fico said, sometimes during a crucial game. Many of them sat out for stretches of the season.

“All of them had a difficult moment in their freshman campaign that they could lean back on to keep the positive things going, something where they can say, ‘Okay, I’ve been down, now I can get back up,’” Fico said. “It was extremely meaningful for three newcomers like that. Young, fun, they love the game… so it meant a lot.”

Other players dealt with injuries earlier in their careers — star outfielder Hallie Langford, for example, had a serious ankle injury last season but bounced back to the tune of a .325 average and .868 OPS.

Then there was third baseman Tori Hedgecock, arguably the team’s most crucial contributor across the past two seasons after blossoming into a true slugger her junior year. Fico described her as “bigger than Mercer,” even “program-changing.”

And yet Hedgecock remained a Bear in the era of college athletes transferring with ease.

“I think everything happens for a reason,” the Valdosta native said. “I was committed to go to Arkansas before I committed to Mercer. With COVID, a lot of things happened and I ended up here with these coaches. Obviously I believe in Jesus, and I think I’m here for a reason.

“The grass isn’t always greener. I really love it here.”

Hedgecock made it count, too. She finished the season with a .355 average, a 1.228 OPS and 16 home runs.

And, in line with her decision to stay in Macon, Hedgecock loves her teammates. She was thrilled for everyone on the team, but a little extra excited for Jones’ return to the mound and tournament MVP award.

“She’s my roommate though, so I guess I’m a little biased,” Hedgecock said. “But for her to come back, and after injury where she hadn’t pitched to live batters in so long. I was so happy.”

Beating the odds to meet a familiar foe

While Hedgecock did not have to deal with health problems the way some of her teammates did, her progression into a bonafide threat at the plate epitomizes Mercer’s recent growth as a program. 

If the individual underdog stories weren’t enough, the team entered the tournament as the No. 5 seed and lost to Chattanooga the first time around, necessitating a lengthy run through the loser’s bracket to reach the title game.

“I think we do better when we’re not expected to do it. We stayed within us and just trusted our plan. We did it the hardest way, but we made it to the championship game,” Hedgecock said, smiling. “Already battled through six games, so why not play eight games, you know?”

It was a mentality the entire team adopted, and one that netted Mercer softball its first-ever NCAA tournament appearance. Even in the championship game against No. 1 Chattanooga — the first game, the one to reset the bracket and force a winner-take-all Game 2 — the Bears went down 5-0. Things looked bleak.

“I tried to stay as calm as possible, and I did. If you watch me coach, I’m a pretty emotional coach. But honestly, the week we were there, I had this weird calm come over me,” Fico said. “When we got down 5-0, I knew our pitching had not done that bad, we just had not done some defensive stuff. I just reminded the team to be calm. And they stuck to it.”

In the fifth inning, Mercer loaded the bases. Grace Jones promptly cleared them with a triple to make it 5-3.

“When she had that triple, it was like, ‘Okay, here we go,’” Fico said. 

The Bears cruised the rest of the way, taking the lead on a two-run single by Parris Wiggs in the sixth inning to win Game 1 before taking Game 2 behind three hits and three RBIs from Hedgecock.

The storylines don’t end there. Now Mercer will face the Florida Gators — Fico’s alma mater and a childhood favorite team of several Bears players from nearby cities in Florida — in the NCAA Tournament.

Even crazier, two Mercer players graduated from the school Monday. Tuesday afternoon, as the rest of the team practiced, Lillian Wilkerson and Madi Wicker were in their first classes in the University of Florida’s nursing program.

“Can you believe that? I have two players on my team, in my dugout, two of my most energetic players, and they were in class for nursing school (Tuesday) at UF, after graduating the day before,” Fico said, laughing. “I mean, that’s nuts. And my connections there are key, too… The fact that we can go back to my home state and a lot of the girls’ home state and compete on the biggest stage, it will be a lot of fun.”

The Gators will be a tall task. Florida (43-14) is the No. 4 team in the country and received first-place votes in the latest NCAA softball poll. They earned the No. 3 national seed in the bracket, giving them home field advantage to open the playoffs. 

But the Bears are plenty familiar with Gainesville. For Fico and her team, it won’t change a thing.

“It’s the same grass, the same dirt, the same field. We have to trust our process and go out there and do our best,” Fico said. “We’re excited to do it.”

Mercer is set to take on Florida at 4:30 p.m. on Friday. The game can be streamed via ESPN+.