March 28, 2010

Box Score

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The Samford baseball team earned the sweep of its Southern Conference series with Furman with a 4-1 win over the Paladins Sunday afternoon at Joe Lee Griffin Field.

"This was just a great job of finishing the weekend by our guys," Samford head coach Casey Dunn said. "All of our pitchers did a great job. Josh (Martin) was as good as he's been. Andrew (Jones) came in and did a great job and, with the exception of one pitch, Lex (Rutledge) did a great job too. I also thought we played extremely well defensively. We did a good job of making plays behind our pitchers."

Samford sophomore pitcher Josh Martin pitched 6.2 innings, giving up no runs on six hits to earn the win. Andrew Jones pitched 1.1 hitless innings in relief, and Lex Rutledge tossed the final inning, giving up one run on one hit.

For Samford (14-10, 5-1 SoCon) at the plate, Stephen Ballard went 2-for-3 with a home run and two RBI. Trey Hayes and Austin Allison also had an RBI each for the Bulldogs.

Furman (8-16, 2-7 SoCon) was led at the plate by Will Miller, going 2-for-4. Brian Harrison, who pinch-hit for the Paladins in the ninth inning, was 1-for-1 with a solo home run. Furman's Kevin Gaid pitched 7.0 innings, giving up four runs on four hits to take the loss.

Samford jumped on top early with two runs in the bottom of the first inning. After Wayne Miller singled to lead off the inning, Ballard hit a two-run homer to right field for a 2-0 Samford lead.

Samford added a run in the bottom of the fourth inning to push its lead to 3-0. Allison hit a sacrifice fly to center field to drive in Hayes for Samford's third run of the game.

The Bulldogs plated one final run in the bottom of the eighth inning to make the score 4-0. Mason Meredeth scored from third base when Hayes reached base on a Furman error with the bases loaded for Samford's final run of the game.

Furman avoided the shutout when Harrison hit a two-out pinch-hit solo home run in the top of the ninth inning to make the final score 4-1.

Samford will return to action on Thursday, April 1, when the Bulldogs open a three-game Southern Conference series at Davidson. The teams will play Thursday at 5 p.m. (CT), Friday at 5 p.m. (CT) and Saturday at 12 p.m. (CT).