March 7, 2010

Box Score

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The Samford baseball team dropped an 8-4 decision to the Evansville Purple Aces Sunday afternoon at Joe Lee Griffin Field.

With the loss, Samford drops to 7-5 so far this season, while Evansville improves to 3-8. Samford won the series with Evansville, two games to one.

In Sunday's loss, Samford was led at the plate by Mason Meredeth, going 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI. Gardner Richey hit a home run in a 1-for-3 performance. Josh Martin pitched 6.0 innings, giving up five runs on six hits while striking out six batters to take the loss on the mound.

For Evansville, Cody Fick was 3-for-5 with a home run and three RBI. Alex Acheson was 2-for-4 at the plate for Evansville. Greg Wallace, Trentt Copeland and Ryan Oesterle all homered for the Purple Aces.

Evansville's Seth McCabe pitched 1.1 innings in relief to earn the win. Corey Davisson got the final two outs to earn the save for Evansville.

Samford jumped on top first with two runs in the bottom of the second inning. Michael Johnson hit a sacrifice fly to left field to drive in Richey for the game's first run. Alvin Hines II later scored from third base when Wayne Miller reached base on an infield single for a 2-0 Samford lead.

Evansville answered with three runs in the top of the third inning to take a 3-2 lead. Fick singled to drive in Eric Stamets for the Purple Aces' first run of the game. Wallace then hit a two-run home run to give Evansville the lead.

Samford tied the score with a run in the bottom of the fourth inning. Richey led the inning off with a home run to make the score 3-3.

Evansville took the lead again with a run in the top of the fifth inning. Oesterle hit a lead-off home run to left field for a 4-3 Evansville lead.

Samford answered again with a run in the bottom of the fifth inning to tie the score at 4-4. Meredeth singled to right field to drive in Stephen Ballard for the game-tying run.

Evansville took control of the game for good with a run in the sixth inning and three more in the seventh to make the final score 8-4. Ty Legan hit a sacrifice fly to left field to drive in John Day for the eventual game-winning run. In the seventh inning, Fick hit a two-run home run and Copeland hit a solo homer for the three final runs of the game.

Samford will play two midweek games this week. The Bulldogs will play host to the Michigan State Spartans on Tuesday, Mar. 9, at 6 p.m. On Wednesday, Samford will travel to in-state rival Jacksonville State, also at 6 p.m.