April 10, 2011

Box Score

CULLOWHEE, N.C. - Samford's Saxon Butler drove in six runs, going 3-for-5 with a grand slam, to lead the Bulldog baseball team to an 11-6 Southern Conference win at Western Carolina Sunday afternoon at Hennon Stadium.

With the win, Samford improves to 21-13 overall and 9-6 in SoCon play. Western Carolina drops to 13-16-1 overall and 4-11 in league play.

Butler's grand slam was his third of the season. Brandon Miller went 3-for-6 with a home run, two doubles and two RBI. Miller's home run was his team-leading 12th of the season and his third of the weekend. Brandon Powell also went 3-for-5 at the plate for the Bulldogs.

Samford's Joshua VanFleteren (3-2) pitched 5.0 innings, giving up three runs on eight hits, striking out three batters and walking none to earn the win on the mound. Josh Martin, Grant Sides, Arthur Strauss and Andrew Jones also saw time on the mound for Samford.

Western Carolina was led at the plate by Ross Heffley and Adam Martin, both going 3-for-5 with an RBI. Kyle Stewart (0-3) pitched 2.0 innings, giving up three runs on five hits to take the loss for the Catamounts.

Samford jumped on top first with a run in the top of the first inning. Johnson walked to lead the inning off. Johnson then moved to second base on a sacrifice bunt by Brad Moss, and third on a wild pitch. Johnson then scored on a ground out by Butler to give Samford a 1-0 lead.

Western Carolina came back with a run in the bottom of the first inning to tie the score at 1-1. Austin Schultz led the inning off with a double to right field. After moving to third base on a ground out, Schultz scored on a single by Heffley.

The Catamounts took the lead with a run in the bottom of the second inning. Stephen Notaro led off the inning with a single. After moving to second base on a ground out, Notaro scored on a two-out double to right-center field by Schultz to give WCU a 2-1 lead.

Samford took the lead back with two runs in the top of the third inning. After Butler singled to lead the inning off, Miller hit a home run over the left-field wall to give Samford a 3-2 lead.

The Bulldogs plated four runs in the top of the fourth inning to push its lead to 7-2. Tyler Filliben singled, Johnson reached base on an error and Moss walked to load the bases. Butler then hit a grand slam to right field to give Samford a five-run lead.

Western Carolina added a run in the bottom of the fifth inning to cut the Samford lead to 7-3. With two outs in the inning, Heffley singled to start the rally. Heffley then moved to second base on a wild pitch. Martin then singled to drive in Heffley for WCU's third run of the game.

The Catamounts plated three unearned runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to cut Samford's lead to 7-6. With one out in the inning and runners on first and second base, Tyler White and Dykota Spiess both scored on a Samford error to make the score 7-5. Aaron Attaway, who reached base on the error earlier in the inning, scored when Schultz grounded out to shortstop to bring WCU to within one run.

Samford answered with three runs in the top of the seventh inning to push its lead to 10-6. Phillip Ervin led the inning off with a single and later scored on a WCU balk. Filliben and Johnson later drove in a run each for the Bulldogs in the inning to give Samford a four-run lead.

Samford added one final run in the top of the ninth inning to make the final score 11-6. With one out in the inning, Moss reached base on a WCU error and advanced to second on the error. Butler then singled to drive in Moss for the game's final run.

Samford will return to action on Friday, April 15, when the Bulldogs travel to Boone, N.C., for a three-game Southern Conference series at Appalachian State.