March 18, 2010

Box Score

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The Samford baseball team dropped the first game of its four-game series with Minnesota by a score of 9-4 Thursday afternoon at Joe Lee Griffin Field.

With the loss, Samford drops to 9-8 on the season. Minnesota improves to 6-11.

Samford was led at the plate by Mason Meredeth, going 3-for-5 with two RBI. Michael Johnson was 2-for-4, and Wayne Miller had a home run and an RBI in a 1-for-4 performance. Dayne Cutrell pitched 3.0 innings in relief, giving up six runs, only four earned, on five hits to take the loss.

For Minnesota, Nick O'Shea was 2-for-5 at the plate with a home run and three RBI. A.J. Pettersen was 2-for-4 with three RBI, while Troy Larson went 2-for-4 with an RBI. Allen Bechstein tossed 5.0 innings, giving up three runs on five hits to earn the win.

Samford jumped on top first with two runs in the bottom of the first inning. Miller led the inning off with a solo home run for the first run of the game. Meredeth later singled to center field to drive in Stephen Ballard for a 2-0 Samford lead.

Minnesota plated a run in the top of the third inning to cut the Samford lead to 2-1. Pettersen hit a sacrifice fly to score Kyle Geason for Minnesota's first run of the game.

The Golden Gophers took the lead with three runs in the top of the fifth inning. Larson drove in one run and Pettersen drove in two to give Minnesota a 4-2 lead.

Samford came back with a run in the bottom of the fifth to cut the Golden Gopher lead to one run. Meredeth doubled to center field to drive in Ballard to make the score 4-3.

Minnesota added two runs in the top of the sixth inning to push its lead to 6-3. O'Shea hit a two-run homer to give the Gophers a three-run lead.

Samford cut the lead to 6-4 with a run in the bottom of the sixth inning. Trey Hayes scored from third base when Brad Moss reached base on a bunt single to cut the Minnesota lead to two runs.

The Golden Gophers came back with a run in the top of the seventh inning to push its lead to 7-4. O'Shea singled to center field to drive in Michael Kvasnicka to take the lead back to three runs.

Minnesota added two runs in the top of the ninth inning to make the final score 9-4. Kvasnicka and Kyle Knudson drove in a run each in the inning for the Gophers.

Samford and Minnesota will continue their four-game series with a game Friday at 6 p.m. Fans can follow the game live on the internet via GameTracker at the link below.

GameTracker For Friday's Game