March 12, 2008

Box Score

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - The Samford baseball team dropped a 9-5 decision at Alabama Wednesday night at Sewell-Thomas Stadium.

"When we made mistakes, they made us pay for it," Samford head coach Casey Dunn said. "They did a great job of hitting our mistakes. I thought we did a good job, especially early of putting pressure on them. From an offensive standpoint, I felt good about what we did tonight."

Samford (6-6) was led at the plate by Michael Marseco, going 2-for-5 with three RBI. Michael Johnson was 2-for-3 at the plate. Michael Jarry pitched 5.0 innings, giving up just two earned runs on seven hits and striking out three batters to take the loss on the mound for Samford.

For Alabama (9-5), Matt Bentley was 2-for-4 with two home runs and three RBI. Ross Wilson went 2-for-5 at the plate. Alex Avila hit a solo home run in a 1-for-5 performance. Nathan Kilcrease pitched 3.2 innings, giving up no runs on two hits to pick up the win for the Crimson Tide.

Samford jumped on top first with three runs in the top of the third inning. John Morgan singled, stole second and advanced to third base on a wild pitch. Alex Godshall then reached base on an infield single, driving in Morgan for a 1-0 lead. Marseco later singled up the middle to drive in Godshall and Johnson to make the score 3-0.

Alabama came back with four runs in the bottom of the third to take a 4-3 lead. Brandon May singled to drive in Wilson and Alex Kubal to make the score 3-2. Bentley then hit a home run to right field with May on base to give Alabama the lead.

Samford added two runs in the top of the fifth inning to take a 5-4 lead. Marseco singled to left field to drive in Johnson, and Wayne Miller scored on an Alabama error to give Samford the lead.

Alabama plated two runs in the bottom of the fifth to retake the lead at 6-5. Avila and Bentley each hit solo home runs to right field to give the Crimson Tide a one-run lead.

Alabama added three runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to push its lead to 9-5. Kent Matthes singled to drive in Wilson and Bentley for the first two runs of the inning. Matthes later scored on a passed ball for a four-run Alabama lead.

Samford will return to action Friday when the Bulldogs play host to Rider at 5 p.m. at Joe Lee Griffin Field. The teams will also play Saturday at 1 p.m., and Sunday again at 1 p.m. Friday's game can be heard locally on WVSU-FM 91.1, or worldwide on the internet at www.samford.edu/groups/wvsu/.