March 22, 2011

Box Score

OXFORD, Miss. - The Samford baseball team dropped a hard-fought, 3-0 contest at Ole Miss Tuesday evening at Oxford-University Stadium.

Samford left nine runners on base in the loss, while Ole Miss left 10 runners stranded.

"We hit some decent balls tonight," Samford head coach Casey Dunn said. "We had some good at-bats, but we just couldn't get that timely hit. We have to get better at that."

Samford was led at the plate by Phillip Ervin, going 2-for-3 for the Bulldogs. Brandon Powell, Gardner Richey and Brad Moss had one hit each for Samford.

Joshua VanFleteren (2-2) pitched 3.2 innings, giving up two runs on four hits to take the loss for the Bulldogs. Joseph Burns, Arthur Strauss, Josh Martin, Andrew Jones and C.K. Irby also saw time on the mound for Samford.

For Ole Miss at the plate, Matt Smith hit a two-run home run in a 1-for-3 performance. Alex Yarbrough and Taylor Hightower each went 2-for-4 for the Rebels.

Matt Tracy (3-1) pitched 5.0 innings, surrendering no runs on four hits to earn the win. Brett Huber tossed the final 2.0 innings to earn his third save of the season.

Ole Miss jumped on top early with two runs in the bottom of the first inning. After Blake Newalu was hit by a pitch with one out, Smith hit a home run to center field to give the Rebels a 2-0 lead.

The Rebels added a run in the bottom of the sixth inning to make the score 3-0. Eric Sauls doubled with two outs in the inning. Tanner Mathis then singled through the right side of the infield to drive in Sauls for a three-run Ole Miss lead.

With the loss, Samford drops to 15-8 on the season. Ole Miss improves to 16-6 with the win.

Samford will return to action on Friday, March 25, when the Bulldogs travel to Elon, N.C., for the first game of a three-game Southern Conference series at Elon. Friday's series-opener is scheduled for a 5:30 p.m. (CT) start.