May 17, 2008

Box Score

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. - A late comeback fell just short as the Samford baseball team wrapped up the regular-season with a 7-6 Ohio Valley Conference loss at Tennessee Tech Saturday afternoon.

With the loss, Samford drops to 33-21 overall and 19-7 in OVC play. Tennessee Tech improves to 33-21-1 overall and 13-14 in league play. Samford will enter next week's OVC Tournament as the No. 2 seed, and the Bulldogs will play Thursday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. at Brooks Stadium in Paducah, Ky., against a yet to be determined opponent.

For Samford in the game, Bear Burnett was 2-for-4 with a home run and three RBI. Wayne Miller was 3-for-4 at the plate. Michael Marseco and Marcus Rodriguez had two hits each for the Bulldogs. With his two hits, Marseco set a new Samford record for hits in a season with 88. Tripp Swann pitched an inning in relief, giving up two runs on one hit to take the loss on the mound.

Tennessee Tech was led at the plate by Matt Mihoci, going 3-for-3 with two RBI. A.J. Kirby-Jones had a home run and three RBI in a 1-for-3 performance. Kirby-Jones was also the winning pitcher, tossing 2.1 innings, giving up two runs on three hits.

Tennessee Tech jumped on top first with a run in the bottom of the third inning. After Jake New tripled to center field, New scored when Chris King flew out to center field to give the Golden Eagles a 1-0 lead.

Samford came back to tie the score with a run in the top of the fourth inning. Bo Smith walked with two outs to start the rally. Rodriguez then doubled down the left-field line to drive in Smith to tie the score at 1-1.

Tennessee Tech took the lead again with three runs in the bottom of the sixth inning. After King doubled and Evan Webb singled, Kirby-Jones homered to left field to give the Golden Eagles a 4-1 lead.

Samford came back to tie the score at 4-4 with three runs in the top of the seventh inning. Bill Whitehead and Marseco walked, and Michael Rutledge was hit by a pitch to load the bases with no outs. Burnett then singled through the right-side of the infield to drive in Whitehead to make the score 4-2. Smith then hit a sacrifice fly to bring in Marseco to cut the lead to 4-3. The game-tying run scored when Rodriguez doubled to drive in Rutledge.

The Golden Eagles plated three more runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to take a 7-4 lead. Mihoci doubled to drive in Webb and Kirby-Jones to make the score 6-4. The final run of the inning was scored when Alex Henry hit a sacrifice fly to drive in Brandon Crossman for a three-run Tech lead.

Burnett hit a two-run home run in the top of the ninth inning, his team-leading seventh of the season, with Marseco on base to make the final score 7-6.