March 13, 2009

Box Score

GREENVILLE, S.C. - The Samford baseball team fell at Furman, 11-2, in the first game of a three-game Southern Conference series Friday afternoon at Latham Stadium.

With the loss, Samford drops to 5-9 overall and 2-2 in SoCon play. Furman improves to 7-6 overall and 2-2 in league play.

For Samford at the plate, Wayne Miller and Brad Moss each went 2-for-4. Mason Meredeth hit a solo home run in a 1-for-4 performance.

Samford senior pitcher Michael Jarry started the game on the mound and took the loss for the Bulldogs. Jarry pitched 6.0 innings, giving up seven runs on 11 hits and striking out six batters in the loss.

Furman was led at the plate by Aaron Thompkins, going 4-for-4 with two RBI. Brian Harrison went 3-for-5 with three RBI for the Paladins. Marcus Rose and Reese Wade had two hits each for Furman.

Ian Parry pitched 5.0 innings, giving up two runs on three hits and striking out seven batters to earn the win. Jay Friedman pitched the final 4.0 innings to earn the save for the Paladins.

Furman jumped on top first with two runs in the bottom of the first inning. Harrison singled through the left side of the infield to drive in Rose, who had reached base on an infield single, for the game's first run. Wade then singled through the right side of the infield to drive in Connor Lind for a 2-0 Furman lead.

The Paladins pushed their lead to 3-0 with a run in the bottom of the second inning. Thompkins singled up the middle to begin the inning. After moving to second base on a single and third on a ground out, Thompkins scored when Lind hit a sacrifice fly to left field.

Samford put a run on the board in the top of the third inning to cut the Furman lead to 3-1. With one out in the inning, Meredeth homered to left-center field to pull Samford to within two runs.

The Paladins came back with a run in the bottom of the fourth inning to make the score 4-1. Justin Holloway singled through the right side of the infield to lead off the inning. Thompkins then doubled to center field to drive in Holloway for a three-run Furman lead.

Samford plated its second run of the game in the top of the fifth inning. After Miller reached base on a Furman error, he stole second base and moved to third on another Furman error. Stephen Ballard then grounded out to second base to drive in Miller to make the score 4-2.

Furman added three runs in the sixth inning to make the score 7-2. Rose singled up the middle to drive in to drive in Thompkins for the first run of the inning. Harrison later tripled to drive in Lind and Rob Fondu for a five-run Paladin lead. The Paladins made the score 8-2 with a run in the seventh inning when Wade scored from third base when Thompkins reached base on an infield single.

The Paladins plated three runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to make the final score 11-2. Matt Hemingway doubled to right-center field to drive in Harrison and Lind to make the score 10-2. Hemingway scored when Campbell Lewis hit a sacrifice fly to center field for a nine-run Furman lead.

The same teams will play game two of the series Saturday afternoon. The game has been moved from its original start time of 4 p.m. to 1 p.m. (CT). Fans can follow the game via GameTracker at the link below.

GameTracker For Saturday's Game