May 4, 2012

Box Score

STATESBORO, Ga. - Samford senior right fielder Brandon Miller set a new school single-season home run record with his 18th homer of the season as the Bulldog baseball team earned a 5-4 Southern Conference win at Georgia Southern Friday evening at J.I. Clements Stadium.

For the night, Miller went 2-for-3 with an RBI. The 18 homers break the previous record of 17 hit by Jim Morgan in 1997. Miller now has a school-record 34 home runs in his two-year Samford career. Behind Miller for Samford, Saxon Butler, Phillip Ervin, C.K. Irby and Tommy Corbin each had two hits and an RBI. Ervin also homered in the game, his ninth home run of the season.

"This was a great offensive performance by our guys against one of the best arms in our league," Samford head coach Casey Dunn said. "Our guys had some big hits and took good approaches at the plate from the first inning."

Samford starting pitcher Charles Basford (8-1) pitched 6.1 innings, allowing four runs, just three earned, on nine hits to earn the win. Joseph Burns pitched 1.2 innings of hitless relief to get the Bulldogs to the ninth inning with the lead. Arthur Strauss came on in the ninth inning and retired the Eagles in order to earn his second save of the season.

For Georgia Southern, Eric Phillips went 2-for-3 with a home run and an RBI to lead the Eagles at the plate. Chase Griffin went 2-for-4, while Scooter Williams and Tyler Avera drove in a run each for Georgia Southern.

GSU starting pitcher Chris Beck (4-6) tossed 6.0 innings, allowing five runs on 10 hits to take the loss on the mound for the Eagles. Josh Stevenson and Kyle Rowe pitched the final 3.0 innings for Georgia Southern.

Samford jumped on top first with a run in the top of the first inning. Zeth Stone led the inning off with a single to right field. After moving to second base on a ground out by Brad Moss, Stone scored on a single up the middle by Butler for a 1-0 Samford lead.

Georgia Southern took the lead with two runs in the bottom of the second inning. Avera reached base on a fielder's choice. Brent Pugh then singled to right field, moving Avera to third base. Avera scored on the play on a Samford error to tie the game at 1-1. Pugh later scored when Williams reached base on a fielder's choice for a 2-1 GSU lead.

The Eagles added a run in the third inning to make the score 3-1. With one out in the inning, Stryker Brown doubled down the right-field line. With two outs in the inning, Avera doubled down the left-field line to drive in Brown for a two-run GSU lead. Samford fought back to tie the score with two runs in the top of the fourth inning. With one out in the inning, Ervin hit a home run down the left-field line, and Miller followed with a homer to right-center field to tie the score at 3-3.

Georgia Southern took the lead again with a run in the bottom of the fourth inning. With one out in the inning, Phillips hit a solo home run to left field to give GSU a 4-3 lead.

The Bulldogs took the lead for good with two runs in the top of the sixth inning. With one out in the inning, Ervin doubled to start the rally. Ervin later scored on a single by Irby to tie the game. Irby then scored the eventual game-winning run on a single by Corbin for a 5-4 Samford lead.

Basford pitched into the seventh inning, but was pulled after a one-out double by Griffin with Samford leading, 5-4. Burns and Strauss, however, combined to hold the Eagles hitless over the final 2.2 innings to preserve the win.

With the win, Samford improves to 31-16 overall and 17-8 in SoCon play. Samford has now won 10 of its last 11 games overall. The Bulldogs have won their last seven-straight SoCon games. Georgia Southern falls to 25-22 overall and 11-11 in league play.

Samford and Georgia Southern will continue their three-game series with a game Saturday at 1:30 p.m. (CT). Fans can follow the game online via GameTracker at www.samfordsports.com. The game can also be heard for free or viewed for a subscription price online at the following link: Live Audio and Video