March 16, 2008

Box Score

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - After falling behind early, the Samford baseball team plated two runs in the seventh inning and four in the eighth to take an 8-4, come-from-behind win over Rider Sunday afternoon at Joe Lee Griffin Field.

With the win, Samford earns a sweep in the three-game weekend series with Rider. The Bulldogs are now 9-6 on the season. Rider drops to 6-5 with the loss.

"It was a great job by our guys to come back and score two runs in the seventh and four in the eighth when we were down," Samford head coach Casey Dunn said. "It was big for Andrew Jones to come in the game in the sixth inning in a tough spot and get them to ground into a double play, and then for Trent Hill to come in and close it out the way he did."

Senior Trent Hill pitched the final 2.0 hitless innings to earn the win on the mound and improve his season record to 2-1. Michael Rutledge went 3-for-4 with two doubles and four RBI for Samford at the plate. Alex Godshall, Wayne Miller, Bear Burnett and John Morgan had two hits each for Samford.

For Rider at the plate, Steve Galella and Sean Olson drove in a run each. Kris Brown pitched an inning in relief, giving up three runs on three hits to take the loss on the mound.

Rider scored a run in the first inning, two in the third and one in the sixth to take a 4-2 lead heading into the seventh inning.

In the seventh inning, Samford plated two runs to tie the score at 4-4. The first run of the inning scored when Michael Marseco hit a sacrifice fly to left field to drive in Miller to make the score 4-3. The game-tying run scored when Burnett singled to right field to drive in Rutledge.

Samford added four more runs in the eighth inning to make the final score 8-4. Miller doubled to left field to drive in Michael Johnson for the eventual game-winning run. After Marseco was intentionally walked to load the bases, Rutledge hit a three-run double to left-center field with Marseco, Miller and Godhsall on base for the game's final three runs.

Samford will return to action on Tuesday, March 18, when the Bulldogs play at Memphis at 6:30 p.m. The teams will also play Wednesday at 4 p.m.