Feb. 24, 2008

Box Score

MARIETTA, Ga. - The Samford offense pounded out 14 hits, and the team's pitching staff held Kennesaw State to just three hits as the Bulldog baseball team claimed its first win of the 2008 season, 7-2, at KSU's Stillwell Stadium Sunday afternoon.

Michael Rutledge led Samford (1-2) at the plate, going 3-for-4 with a double and an RBI. Alex Godshall, Michael Johnson and Michael Marseco each went 2-for-5 for the Bulldogs. John Morgan hit his first home run of the season, a solo shot in a 1-for-4 performance.

Jonathan Stephens, in his Samford debut, pitched 6.0 innings, giving up one run on two hits and striking out four batters to earn the win on the mound. Doug Denson earned the save for Samford, pitching the final 1.1 innings, and holding the Owls hitless.

For Kennesaw State (2-1), Martin Baker and Andrew Martin drove in a run each. Bubba Blalock pitched 2.2 innings, giving up five runs on seven hits to take the loss for the Owls.

Samford jumped on top early with two runs in the top of the first inning. Rutledge hit a sacrifice fly to right field to drive in Johnson for the game's first run. Bear Burnett then reached base on an infield single, driving in Marseco for a 2-0 Samford lead.

Kennesaw State plated its first run of the game in the bottom of the first inning to cut the Samford lead to 2-1. Baker hit a sacrifice fly to right field to drive in Jacob Robbins, who led the inning off with a triple for the Owls' first run of the game.

Samford added three more runs in the top of the third inning for a 5-1 lead. Tripp Swann, Marcus Rodriguez and Wayne Miller drove in a run each in the inning.

The Bulldogs plated another run in the sixth inning to push its lead to 6-1. Morgan homered to left field for a five-run Samford lead.

After KSU plated a run in the bottom of the eighth inning, Samford added one final run in the top of the ninth to make the final score 7-2. After Rutledge led the inning off with an infield single, he later scored on a KSU error for the game's final run.

Samford will return to action on Tuesday, Feb. 26, when the Bulldogs play host to Lipscomb. The first pitch is scheduled for 3 p.m. at Joe Lee Griffin Field.