March 15, 2011

Box Score

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The Samford baseball team earned a 5-4 win against cross-town rival UAB Tuesday evening at Joe Lee Griffin Field.

Samford improves to 12-6 with the win. The game marked Samford's fourth-straight one-run win after sweeping The Citadel over the weekend in thee one-run contests. UAB drops to 8-7 with the loss.

Samford's Joshua VanFleteren (2-1) earned the win, pitching 5.0 innings, giving up two runs on seven hits, striking out three batters and walking four. Andrew Jones pitched the final 1.2 innings, giving up no runs on two hits and walking two batters, to earn his third save of the season.

"We walked way too many guys and gave up way too many opportunities, but we found a way to get it done," Samford head coach Casey Dunn said. "Thankfully we were able to dodge the bullets and not let it hurt us, but we have to be better than that. Defensively we played well and that is probably the positive that comes out of tonight."

For Samford at the plate, Brad Moss went 2-for-3 with two doubles and two RBI. Brandon Miller had a triple and drove in two runs in a 1-for-3 performance. Phillip Ervin also drove in a run, going 1-for-3 at the plate.

UAB's Blake Huddleston (1-1) pitched 4.2 innings, giving up five runs on six hits, striking out two batters and walking two to take the loss for the Blazers. UAB was led at the plate by John Frost who hit a two-run home run and drove in three runs in a 1-for-4 performance. Nick Crawford and Ryan Ussery each went 2-for-4 for UAB.

UAB jumped on top first with a run in the top of the third inning. Jamal Austin singled to center field to drive in Jacob German, who had walked to lead off the inning, to give the Blazers a 1-0 lead.

Samford put all five of its runs on the scoreboard in the fifth inning to take a 5-1 lead. Moss doubled to center field to drive in Tyler Filliben and Stephen Ballard for Samford's first two runs of the game. Ervin singled to right field to drive in Moss to make the score 3-1. Miller later tripled to left field to drive in Saxon Butler and Ervin to give Samford a four-run lead.

UAB plated another run in the sixth inning to cut the Samford lead to 5-2. Michael Busby scored from third base when Frost grounded out to second base.

The Blazers added two runs in the top of the eighth inning to make the score 5-4. Frost hit a home run to left field with Busby, who had reached base on an error earlier in the inning, on base.

Following Frost's homer, Jones came in to pitch for Samford and got the Bulldogs out of the inning with a one-run lead. He then held the Blazers scoreless in the ninth inning to preserve the win.

Samford and UAB will meet again Wednesday night at 6:30 p.m. at UAB's Young Memorial Field. Fans can follow the game online via GameTracker at the link below.

GameTracker For Wednesday's Game