April 17, 2010

Box Score

STATESBORO, Ga. - The Georgia Southern baseball team plated 11 runs over the middle three innings to overcome a four-run deficit and then held on for a 14-9 Southern Conference win over Samford Saturday night at J.I. Clements Stadium.

With the loss, Samford drops to 21-13 overall and 11-3 in SoCon play. Georgia Southern improves to 20-15 overall and 11-6 in league play. The loss assures Samford of its first series loss of the 2010 season.

Samford was led at the plate by Michael Johnson, going 3-for-5 with a home run and two RBI. David Schulze was 2-for-3 with a home run and three RBI. Bo Smith, Trey Hayes and Gary Cramer had two hits each for the Bulldogs.

Kyle Putkonen pitched 3.2 innings, giving up six runs on six hits to take the loss and drop his record to 3-2. Michael Gunter, Rumiko Forrester and Dayne Cutrell also saw time on the mound for Samford.

For Georgia Southern, Randy J. Williams went 3-for-5 with two doubles, a home run and four RBI. A.J. Wirnsberger was 3-for-5 with a double, a triple and two RBI. Eric Phillips and Michael Burruss also homered in the win for the Eagles.

Chris Beck pitched 3.1 innings in relief, giving up three runs on four hits to get the win and improve his season record to 2-3. Dexter Bobo tossed the final 2.0 innings, giving up just two hits to earn his fifth save of the season.

Samford jumped on top first with two runs in the third inning and two more in the fourth. In the third inning, Johnson hit a home run to right-center field with Cramer on base for the first two runs of the game. In the fourth inning, Schulze homered to center field with Mason Meredeth on base for a 4-0 Samford lead.

Georgia Southern came back with six runs in the bottom of the fourth to take a 6-4 lead. Phillips hit a two-run home run and Williams hit a three-run homer for the Eagles in the fourth. Victor Roache also had an RBI double in the inning.

GSU also plated two runs in the fifth inning and three more in the sixth to push its lead to 11-4. In the fifth inning, Shawn Payne doubled to drive in Burruss, and then Williams doubled to drive in Payne to make the score 8-4. In the sixth inning, Kevin Bowles scored from third base on a wild pitch for the first run of the inning. Wirnsberger then doubled to drive in Kyle Blackburn and Phillips for a seven-run GSU lead.

Samford came back with three runs in the seventh inning and two more in the eighth to cut the GSU lead to 11-9. Moss scored from third base on a wild pitch for the first run in the seventh inning. Schulze later singled to right field to drive in Meredeth, and then Bo Smith singled to drive in Schulze.

In the eighth inning, Brad Moss doubled to drive in Cramer for the first run of the inning. Pinch-runner Davis Harrison then scored from third base when Stephen Ballard grounded out to second base to pull Samford to within two runs.

Georgia Southern answered with three runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to make the final score 14-9. Burruss hit a two-run home run with Roache on base for the first two runs of the inning. Arthur Owens singled to drive in Williams for the game's final run.

Samford and Georgia Southern will wrap up their three-game series with a game Sunday at 12:30 p.m. (CT). Fans can follow the game live on the internet via GameTracker at the link below.

GameTracker For Sunday's Game