May 18, 2007

Game One Box Score
Game Two Box Score

MARTIN, Tenn. - The Samford baseball team clinched a spot in next week's Ohio Valley Conference Tournament with a doubleheader sweep at Tennessee-Martin Friday afternoon. Samford won the first game of the doubleheader, 13-5, and then took game two by a score of 11-3.

With the sweep, Samford improves to 28-26 overall ad 13-13 in the OVC. Tennessee-Martin drops to 19-35 overall and 7-18 in conference play. Samford currently stands in sixth place in the OVC, good for the final spot in the OVC Tournament, scheduled for May 23-27 in Paducah, Ky.

For Samford in the first game, Parker Gargis, Garrett Rice, Jonathan Lowery and John Morgan had a home run each. Trent Hill earned the win, pitching 4.1 innings in relief, giving up one run on two hits and striking out eight batters. David Knapp started the game for Samford, tossing 4.2 innings, allowing four runs on five hits.

The Skyhawks were led in game one by Kevin Holt, going 2-for-4 with four RBI, and Jason Hockaday, who went 2-for-4 at the plate. Eric Walker pitched 3.2 innings, giving up eight runs on 12 hits to take the loss.

In game one, Samford jumped on top first with two runs in the top of the second inning. Rice homered to left field with Louis Rojas, who had led the inning off with a single, on base to give Samford a 2-0 lead.

Samford added a run in the top of the third to push its lead to 3-0. Gargis hit his OVC-leading 12th home runs of the season to left field to give Samford a three-run lead.

Samford added five runs in the fourth inning to make the score 8-0. Lowery and Morgan led the inning off with back-to-back home runs to make the score 5-0. Lowery's home run was the first of his collegiate career. Luke Peavy later singled up the middle to drive in Bear Burnett for a 6-0 Samford lead. Rojas then singled to drive in Gargis to make the score 7-0. Peavy later scored on a UTM error for an eight-run Samford lead.

The Bulldogs made the score 9-0 with a run in the top of the fifth inning. Michael Marseco hit a sacrifice fly to drive in Morgan for Samford's ninth run of the game.

UT Martin plated four runs in the bottom of the fifth to cut the Samford lead to 9-4. Blake Turner hit a solo home run and Holt hit a three-run homer for the Skyhawks.

In the sixth inning, UT Martin added another run. Holt doubled to drive in Hockaday to make the score 9-5.

Samford added four runs in the seventh inning to make the final score 13-5. Rice drove in two of the runs, Burnett drove in one run and Bill Whitehead scored on a Tennessee-Martin error to give Samford the eight-run lead.

In the second game, Rice homered again, his 10th of the season. Rice, Marseco, Burnett, Rojas and Morgan had two hits each. Doug Denson pitched 2.2 innings in relief, giving up one unearned run on three hits to earn the win.

For UTM in game two, Kyle Dudley, Bryce Carden and Hockaday had two hits each. William Blackmon pitched 4.1 innings, giving up seven runs on eight hits to take the loss.

Samford jumped on top first when Rice hit a solo home run in the top of the second inning to give Samford a 1-0 lead.

After UTM tied the score with a run in the bottom of the second, Samford came back with two runs in the top of the third to take a 3-1 lead. Rojas singled to drive in Gargis and Marseco to give Samford a two-run lead.

The Skyhawks plated a run in the bottom of the third, and Samford added one more in the top of the fourth to make the score 4-2. Samford then broke the game open with six runs in the top of the fifth inning to make the score 10-2. Marseco drove in two runs in the inning, and Rojas, Rice and Morgan drove in a run each in the inning for the Bulldogs.

Tennessee-Martin scored a run in the sixth inning and Samford added one in the seventh to make the final score 11-3.

Samford and Tennessee-Martin will conclude the regular season with a single game Saturday afternoon at 1:00 p.m. The game can be heard locally on WVSU-FM 91.1, or worldwide on the internet at www.al.com/wvsu. Fans can also follow the game live on the internet via GameTracker at www.samfordsports.com.