April 11, 2010

Box Score

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The Samford baseball team completed its three-game Southern Conference sweep of the UNC Greensboro Spartans with an 8-4 win Sunday afternoon at Joe Lee Griffin Field.

"This was a good job by our guys of finishing off the weekend," Samford head coach Casey Dunn said. "Today, it was mostly taking advantage of opportunities early. They helped us out some early and thankfully we were able to capitalize."

The win was Samford's 10th-straight Southern Conference win. The Bulldogs improve to 20-11 overall and 11-1 in SoCon play. Samford is now in a tie for first place in the league with The Citadel. UNC Greensboro drops to 14-18 overall and 2-12 in SoCon play.

Samford was led at the plate by Stephen Ballard, going 2-for-4 and Trey Hayes, going 2-for-5. Bo Smith drove in two runs, going 1-for-1 at the plate. Gary Cramer also had two RBI, both coming on bases-loaded walks.

Josh Martin started the game on the mound for Samford, pitching 6.2 innings, giving up just one earned run on seven hits to earn the win and improve to 2-3 on the season. Andrew Jones tossed the final 2.1 innings for the Bulldogs.

For UNC Greensboro at the plate, Harry Slade went 3-for-5 with a double. Zach Leach went 2-for-5 with an RBI. Ed Jayjack drove in two runs in a 1-for-4 performance. Colby Hyatt started the game on the mound, pitching a third of an inning and giving up five runs on five hits to take the loss and drop to 3-3 on the season.

Samford sent 11 batters to the plate and scored five runs in the first inning to take an early 5-0 lead. David Schulze, Smith, Cramer, Michael Johnson and Brad Moss drove in a run each as Samford raced out to a five-run lead.

The score remained 5-0 until UNC Greensboro scored its first run of the game in the top of the fourth inning. Leach singled up the middle to drive in Ray Quinones to make the score 5-1.

Samford added two runs in the fourth inning and one more in the fifth to make the score 8-1. In the fourth inning, the first run was scored when Smith was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to bring in Ballard. Cramer was later walked with the bases loaded to score Mason Meredeth. The run in the fifth was scored when Meredeth hit a sacrifice fly to left field to drive in Ballard for a seven-run Samford lead.

UNC Greensboro scored two runs in the seventh inning and one in the eighth to make the final score 8-4. In the seventh inning Jayjack hit a sacrifice fly to right field to drive in Chris Barker for the first run. Cody Walker walked with the bases loaded to score Drew Gehringer for the final run of the seventh inning. The run in the eighth inning scored when Jayjack singled to right field to drive in Barker.

Samford will return to action on Tuesday, April 13, when the Bulldogs play at Alabama. The game is scheduled for a 6:30 p.m. start from Alabama's Sewell-Thomas Stadium.