March 29, 2011

Box Score

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The Samford baseball plated four runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to come from behind for a 7-4 win over Jacksonville State Tuesday evening at Joe Lee Griffin Field.

"It was a great job by our guys coming in and swinging the bats," Samford head coach Casey Dunn said. "A lot of what we did was with two outs tonight, which was great. I think the story of the game, though, was the success of our bullpen. The bullpen went five-plus innings and only gave up one hit and no runs. It was just a great job by six different guys."

Tyler Vanderheiden (1-0) pitched 1.1 innings in relief, allowing no hits and striking out two batters to earn the win. Samford used six pitchers in relief of starter Joshua VanFleteren. In addition to Vanderheiden, Arthur Strauss, Joseph Burns, Gil Walker, C.K. Irby and Andrew Jones all saw time out of the bullpen. Jones tossed the final inning to earn his fifth save of the season.

At the plate, Samford was led by Michael Johnson, going 3-for-4 with a double and two RBI. Brandon Miller went 2-for-4 with a home run and an RBI. Tommy Corbin was also 2-for-4 with an RBI for the Bulldogs. Saxon Butler hit a solo home run in a 1-for-4 performance at the plate. Phillip Ervin extended his current hit streak to 19 games, going 1-for-4 with an RBI.

Jacksonville State's Hunter Rivers (5-1) pitched 1.1 innings, giving up four runs on four hits to take the loss for the Gamecocks. Kyle Bluestein led the Gamecocks at the plate, going 2-for-4 with an RBI. Erik Underwood, Sam Eberle and Blake Seguin had two hits each for JSU. Jake Sharrock drove in two runs in a 1-for-5 performance.

Samford jumped on top early with a run in the bottom of the first inning. With two outs in the inning, Butler hit a solo home run to right field for a 1-0 Samford lead.

Jacksonville State tied the game with a run in the top of the second inning. Seguin scored from third base when Andrew Bishop hit a sacrifice fly to center field to tie the score at 1-1.

The Bulldogs plated two runs in the bottom of the second inning to take a 3-1 lead. With two outs in the inning, Corbin singled to center field to start the rally. Irby then singled down the right field line and Corbin advanced to third base. Johnson then doubled to center field to drive in Irby and Corbin for a two-run Samford lead.

Jacksonville State came back to take the lead with three runs in the top of the fourth inning. Bluestein drove in one run and Sharrock drove in two to give the Gamecocks a 4-3 advantage.

Samford answered with four runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to take the lead for good at 7-4. Miller led the inning off with a solo home run to center field to tie the score. Gary Cramer then walked and Stephen Ballard pinch ran for Cramer. With one out, Gardner Richey tripled to right-center field to give Samford the lead at 5-4.

Corbin then singled through the left side of the infield to drive in Richey to make the score 6-4. Irby reached base on a fielder's choice and Corbin was retired on the play. Johnson then singled to right field and Irby advanced to second base. Ervin then singled to right field to drive in Irby for the game's final run.

Samford improves to 17-10 with the win. Jacksonville State drops to 17-8 with the loss.

Samford will return to action on Friday when the Bulldogs play host to Davidson in the first game of a three-game Southern Conference series. The teams will play Friday at 6 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m.