The Mercer baseball team hits the diamond Friday to start the 2012 season and the Bears hope to return to A-SUN championship form with some new faces in the lineup.
One of those players will be Macon native and former Central Charger Kelcey Butts.
Butts was the starting center fielder for South Georgia College and hit .361 in his only season at South Georgia.
Now the sophomore has transferred to Mercer looking forward to contribute to his hometown team.
His manager Craig Gibson, "We like local guys thats why I hunted out Kelsey Butts. I liked him in high school. I think he is special. He's special in the classroom and special on the field and thats the kind of kids we want in our program wearing that orange and black."
"I'm very excited," says Butts. "Very excited to see my family come to see me play alot of my games and I am pretty happy about that so this is where I feel comfortable playing so its good."
Mercer opens up the season this Friday afternoon at 4 when it welcomes Morehead State to Claude Smith Field for a four-game set.