A bear pitches in the coastal plain league

Over 5,000 miles traveled, 52 games, 16 teams and four states — the Macon Bacon baseball team had their work cut out for them this season in the Coastal Plain League (CPL). This year, the team recruited Mercer junior Josh Farmer to pitch.

Farmer posted a 6.28 earned run average last season and pitched over a dozen innings for the Mercer Bears. He also played in the Great Lakes league last summer.

While playing for the Bacon this summer, he appeared in 10 games with 22 strikeouts, according to the CPL records. Farmer is the only Mercer baseball player to be recruited for the CPL this year.

“Coach (Danny) Higginbotham tells us this all the time, playing in the CPL is the closest thing you can get to playing professional baseball,” Farmer said. “It gets ready for all aspects of the game at the next level.”

The team is based out of Macon, Georgia, and traveled to North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. Their home games hit a record this year with 12 out of the 25 games selling out, according to the Macon Bacon’s front office.

“I think the culture and the history here has made it such a fun experience for me,” Farmer said. “When you play for a team with a fan base like this, it makes it easier to come out here and play.”

This was the Macon Bacon’s second year playing in the league, and they claimed the title of Southwest Region Champions. The team faced the Morehead City Marlins for the Petitt Cup Champion Title.

“The coaches and the players here have really stuck with me and they believed in me,” Farmer said. “It’s really easy to get left behind in baseball, but to fail and come back and everyone believe in you, it really changes the game.”