Feb. 20, 2011

Box Score

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The Samford baseball team completed its three-game sweep of Western Illinois with an 18-1 win Sunday afternoon at Joe Lee Griffin Field.

With the win, Samford improves to 3-0 for the first time since 1997. Western Illinois drops to 0-3 with the loss.

The Bulldog offense plated 18 runs on 10 hits, while five Samford pitchers combined to limit Western Illinois to just one run on six hits.

"It was nice to put it all together," Samford head coach Casey Dunn said. "We didn't have a ton of hits, but we had a lot of timely hits. Obviously, we were able to take advantage of some mistakes on their part. The biggest thing today was that we pitched really well. I thought everyone threw well."

Joshua VanFleteren (1-0) started the game on the mound for Samford, pitching 5.1 innings, giving up no runs on three hits. VanFleteren struck out four batters and allowed no walks. Taylor Hammond, C.K. Irby, Rumiko Forrester and Andrew Jones each saw time on the mound over the final 3.2 innings of the game.

At the plate, Samford was led by Michael Johnson, going 3-for-5 with two RBI. Brandon Miller went 2-for-3 with a home run and three RBI. Phillip Ervin was 2-for-4 at the plate for Samford.

Western Illinois pitcher Alexander Zarate (0-1) pitched 4.0 inning and allowed six unearned runs to take the loss for the Leathernecks. Tom Lilja went 2-for-4 with a home run to lead WIU at the plate.

Samford got on the scoreboard first with a run in the bottom of the first inning. Saxon Butler walked with two outs and later scored on a WIU error for the first run of the game.

Samford added five runs in the second inning to push its lead to 6-0. The majority of the runs in the inning came on a three-run home run by Miller with Butler and Kevin Putkonen on base. Johnson and Ervin also scored on a WIU error in the inning.

The Bulldogs plated six more runs in the sixth inning to make the score 12-0. Butler drove in two runs, while Tyler Filliben, Johnson, Putkonen and Tripp Swann drove in a run each in the inning for Samford.

Samford added two runs in the seventh inning to take a 14-0 advantage. Byron Soler singled to drive in Filliben and Tommy Corbin to give Samford a 14-run lead.

Western Illinois put its lone run on the scoreboard in the top of the eighth inning. Lilja hit a solo home run to left field with one out to make the score 14-1.

Samford finished the scoring with four runs in the bottom of the eighth inning. Johnson and Butler drove in a run each in the eighth inning. Corbin and Ervin each scored on wild pitches to make the final score 18-1.

Samford will be back in action Tuesday evening when the Bulldogs play host to Alabama A&M. The game is scheduled for a 6 p.m. start from Joe Lee Griffin Field.