April 10, 2012

Box Score

AUBURN, Ala. - The Samford baseball team fell in a midweek contest at Auburn, 7-5, Tuesday evening at Plainsman Park.

Auburn scored four runs in the second inning to take an early lead, and Samford was never able to catch up the rest of the way.

"That big inning in the second got us beat," Samford head coach Casey Dunn said. "We made some defensive mistakes. Not things that will show up as errors, but situational stuff that we have to do a better job on, and they were able to capitalize on the mistakes we made."

Samford was led at the plate by Phillip Ervin, going 4-for-5. Zeth Stone was 3-for-5 for the Bulldogs. Brad Moss went 2-for-4 with an RBI, while Tommy Corbin was 2-for-5 with an RBI.

Lex Rutledge (0-3) pitched 3.0 innings, giving up five runs, four earned, on five hits to take the loss on the mound for Samford. Tyler Vanderheiden, Arthur Strauss, Michael Gunter, Joseph Burns and C.K. Irby also saw time on the mound for the Bulldogs.

Auburn was led at the plate by Zach Alvord, going 2-for-4 with two RBI. Dan Glevenyak went 2-for-3 with an RBI, while Creede Simpson was 2-for-4 with an RBI for the Tigers.

Trey Cochran-Gill (2-1) pitched 2.2 innings, allowing no runs on three hits to earn the win for Auburn. Justin Bryant pitched the final two-thirds of an inning to earn his fourth save of the season.

Auburn jumped on top first with four runs in the bottom of the second inning. Alvord, Jay Gonzalez and Glevenyak drove in a run each in the inning. Gonzalez also scored on a Samford error to give Auburn a 4-0 lead.

The Tigers added a run in the bottom of the third inning to make the score 5-0. Simpson doubled to right-center field to drive in Garrett Cooper for a five-run Auburn lead.

Samford got on the scoreboard with a run in the top of the fourth inning. Ervin singled to start the rally. Ervin later scored on a single by Corbin to cut the Auburn lead to 5-1.

The Bulldogs added three runs in the top of the seventh inning to pull to within one run at 5-4. Brandon Miller singled to left field to drive in Moss for the first run of the inning. Irby later tripled, driving in Miller and Ervin for the final two Samford runs in the seventh inning.

Auburn answered with two runs of its own in the bottom of the seventh inning to push its lead back to three runs at 7-4. Cullen Wacker doubled to drive in Justin Bryant for the first run of the inning. Wacker then scored on a single by Alvord for a three-run Auburn lead.

Samford added another run in the top of the eighth inning to make the score 7-5. Austin Allison reached base on an error and advanced to second base on the play. Allison then scored on a single by Moss to pull Samford to within two runs.

In the top of the ninth inning, Samford got runners to second and third base, but the Bulldogs were unable to plate any runs, as the Bulldogs fell to the Tigers by a final score of 7-5.

Samford will return to action on Friday when the Bulldogs open a three-game Southern Conference series at College of Charleston. The teams will play Friday at 5 p.m. (CT), Saturday at 2 p.m. (CT) and Sunday at 12 p.m. (CT).