May 25, 2010

2010 Tournament Guide
Live Broadcast

CHARLESTON, S.C. - The Samford baseball team will make its first-ever appearance in the Southern Conference Tournament when the event opens Wednesday at The Citadel's Joseph P. Riley Park.

Samford's first game in the tournament will be against Elon on Wednesday. The game is scheduled for an 8 p.m. (CDT) start.

The Bulldogs enter the Southern Conference Tournament as the No. 5 seed after posting a 17-12 SoCon record and a 30-23 overall mark in the regular season. Samford saw a major improvement in the team this season after posting a 9-21 SoCon record last season. The 8.5-game jump from last season gives Samford the biggest turnaround in the league this season.

Samford is led at the plate by first-team All-Conference selection David Schulze, batting .387 with 12 home runs and 54 RBI. Trey Hayes is batting .366 with nine home runs and 41 RBI, while Mason Meredeth has a .361 average with 12 home runs and 54 RBI.

Samford is scheduled to start senior right-handed pitcher Jonathan Stephens (7-2, 6.17 ERA) in Wednesday evening's game. In his two seasons on the mound for Samford, Stephens has a career record of 14-2. The Bulldogs' top reliever is second-team All-SoCon member Lex Rutledge. Rutledge has tied a Samford record with 11 saves this season. He also has a record of 5-0 and a 1.20 ERA.

The Phoenix earned the No. 4 seed in the SoCon Tournament with a record of 36-20 overall and 19-11 in conference play.

Elon is led at the plate by Neal Pritchard, batting .357 with 11 home runs and 44 RBI. Mike Melillo is batting .317 with 11 home runs and a team-high 54 RBI. The Phoenix will start Jimmy Reyes (9-3, 4.38 ERA) on the mound in Wednesday's contest.

Samford and Elon have met six previous times, with the Phoenix holding a 5-1 advantage in the series. The teams met in a three-game SoCon series last week in Elon, N.C. Elon won the first game, 6-4 and Samford took game two, 11-10 in 10 innings. The Phoenix came back to win the rubber game, 5-1.

The winner of the Samford-Elon game will play at either 4:00 or 8:00 p.m. (CDT) on Thursday against the winner of the game between No. 1-seeded The Citadel and No. 8 Furman. The Samford-Elon loser will play the loser of The Citadel-Furman game at 12 p.m. (CDT) Thursday.

The championship game of the tournament is scheduled for Sunday at 1 p.m. (CDT). The winner of the tournament earns the SoCon's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

All of Samford's games in the tournament can be heard locally on WVSU-FM 91.1, or worldwide on the internet at www.samford.edu/wvsu.