April 22, 2008

Box Score

AUBURN, Ala. - Samford's Tripp Swann went 3-for-6 with a home run, a triple, a double and six RBI as the Bulldog baseball team won a 12-11 slugfest at Auburn Tuesday night at Plainsman Park.

"Tripp swung the bat really well tonight," Samford head coach Casey Dunn said. "Not only did he get some hits, but he got some big hits and some timely hits."

With the win, Samford improves to 24-14 overall, while Auburn drops to 23-19.

As a team, Samford totaled 17 hits on the night. In addition to Swann's performance, Bill Whitehead was 3-for-6 in the game. Michael Johnson, Bear Burnett, Marcus Rodriguez and John Morgan had two hits each for the Bulldogs. Michael Marseco extended his career-long hitting streak to 23 games with a 1-for-5 performance.

Mark Lewallyn pitched two-thirds of an inning in relief to earn the win on the mound. Kyle Nichols came on to get the final two outs to earn his fourth save of the season.

For Auburn, Joseph Sanders was 2-for-5 with five RBI and Brian Fletcher was 2-for-4 with a home run and two RBI. Luke Greinke pitched 2.0 innings in relief, giving up three runs on five hits to take the loss.

Samford entered the top of the eighth inning trailing, 11-10. Marseco led the inning off with a single to center field. After Michael Rutledge was hit by a pitch, Burnett reached base on a bunt single to load the bases.

Swann then grounded out to shortstop to drive in Marseco with the game-tying run. Rodriguez then singled through the left side of the infield to drive in Rutledge with the game-winning run.

Auburn got on the scoreboard first with a run in the second inning and another in the third for an early 2-0 lead. Samford came back with four runs in the fourth inning to take a 4-2 lead.

The Bulldogs pushed their lead to 5-2 with a run in the top of the fifth inning. After Auburn cut the Samford lead to one with two runs in the bottom of the fifth, Samford plated five runs in the top of the sixth inning to push its lead to 10-4.

Auburn then came back with three runs in the sixth inning and four in the seventh to take the lead again at 11-10.

Samford will play again Wednesday night when the Bulldogs play host to UAB at 6 p.m. at Joe Lee Griffin Field. Fans can follow the game live on the internet via GameTracker at the link below.

GameTracker For Wednesday