April 18, 2007

Box Score

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The Samford baseball team plated three runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to earn a 9-8, come-from-behind win over Auburn Wednesday night at Regions Park in the second-annual Auburn-Samford Baseball Classic presented by First American Bank. The game was played in front of 2,136 fans.

"It was an outstanding effort by our guys," Samford head coach Casey Dunn said. "We had a lot of adversity in a lot of ways, but every time something happened against us, we were able to respond and get big hits. It was great to see those guys come up with guys on base and get big hits."

With Samford trailing, 8-6 in the bottom of the eighth inning, Michael Marseco hit a sacrifice fly to drive in John Morgan to make the score 8-7. Bear Burnett then doubled to center field to drive in Wayne Miller to tie the score at 8-8. Luke Peavy drove in the winning run with a ground-rule double to left-center field to drive in Burnett to give Samford a 9-8 lead.

In the top of the ninth inning, Samford's Joseph Edens set the Tigers down in order to earn his ninth save of the season. Benji Waite pitched 1.0 inning in relief, giving up no runs on one hit to earn the win for the Bulldogs.

For Samford (18-19) at the plate, Morgan was 2-for-3 with two RBI, and Burnett was 2-for-3 with an RBI. Peavy drove in two runs in a 1-for-4 performance.

Auburn (25-15) was led at the plate by Bruce Edwards, going 3-for-6 with an RBI. Luke Greinke, Josh Donaldson, Joseph Sanders and Robert Brooks had two hits each for Auburn. Chris Dennis pitched 1.1 innings in relief, giving up three runs on one hit to take the loss for the Tigers.

Samford jumped on top first with a run in the bottom of the first inning, and then added two runs in the bottom of the third inning to make the score 3-0. Auburn came back with three runs in the top of the fourth inning to tie the score at 3-3.

After Samford retook the lead with a run in the bottom of the fourth, Auburn answered with a run in the top of the fifth to tie the score at 4-4. Samford then took a 6-4 lead with two runs in the bottom of the fifth. Auburn tied the score with two runs in the sixth, and took an 8-6 lead with two more runs in the top of the seventh inning.

Samford will return to action on Saturday, April 21, when the Bulldogs play an Ohio Valley Conference doubleheader at Eastern Illinois. The first game is scheduled for a 1:00 p.m. start. The teams will also play a single game on Sunday at 1:00 p.m.