Box Score BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ---- Samford earned its first run-rule victory of the season with a dominating 9-1 win over Nicholls State Friday at the Magic City Classic.
 
“Overall it was a great team win,” said Head Coach Mandy Burford.  “These are the kind of wins you like where everyone contributes.”
 
Samford (7-7) tallied 12 hits in six innings at the plate, led by a perfect 4-4 performance by freshman Callie Brister that included a long solo home run in the sixth inning, the first of her Samford career.  Alex Adams and Kayla Shaffer both went 3-4 at the plate while Abby Adams drove in three runs of a homer to left field in the bottom of the fifth.
 
Mollie Hanson (5-6) threw 109 pitches over 6.0 innings, allowing only five hits and one earned run in another quality start this season.
 
“The freshman really stepped up and did well,” said Burford.  “Callie and Abby came through with their first home runs of the year and the team played pretty sound defensively.  Mollie came out and pitched lights-out besides one rough inning coming off the bench a little cold after a long inning on offense.”
 
Nicholls State (7-9) struggled at the plate early and they started to find a rhythm in the sixth inning, but it was too little, too late facing a seven-run deficit.  Maggie Bryan scored their only run of the game as a potential grand-slam ball fell just short on the warning track, scoring one off the sacrifice fly.  Ashton Bennett (5-3) threw 4.1 innings, earning eight of the nine runs.
 
“Hats off to Nicholls State,” said Burford. “They threw a great pitcher at us who had a great changeup that kept us off balance.  We did a good job of laying off that changeup and hitting the hard stuff.  We did a good job of hitting locations tonight.  East-to-west, we did really well.”
 
Samford struck right away in the first inning as Alex Adams followed a leadoff walk and single with a double to the right-field gap, scoring Megan Dowdy from second though Brister was tagged out at home trying to score behind Dowdy.  Samford would load the bases with two away in the inning though a groundout would limit the damage as the Bulldogs could only score one.
 
Samford tacked another run on the board in the bottom of the second as Dowdy scored from first base off a deep two-out double by Brister to extend the lead to 2-0.
 
Samford's bats were red hot in the bottom of the fifth, scoring five runs off four hits.  Back-to-back singles led off the inning and Shaffer drove them both home with a two-run double, making the score 4-0 with nobody out.  Later in the inning with two on and one away, Abby Adams came through on a full count with a towering home run to left field, swelling the lead to 7-0.  The Bulldogs couldn't complete the run-rule victory in the inning however, heading to the top of the sixth with a seven-run lead.
 
After a long wait in the dugout during the Samford half-inning, Hanson struggled somewhat to start the sixth as the Colonels had the bases loaded with one away.  Bryan launched a long fly ball to the right-field gap that came down at the warning track, saving a grand slam but scoring one off a sacrifice fly to end the shutout.  A groundout would end the inning with Samford needing to score two to end the game early in the bottom of the sixth.
 
Brister's fourth hit of the day was a big one as she led off the sixth with a monster homer to straightaway center field to give the Bulldogs a seven-run lead, up 8-1.  Back-to-back singles by Alex Adams and Shaffer put the potential final run in scoring position and Caitlin Bice ended it with a double to left field as Adams crossed the plate with Samford earning the 9-1 run-rule victory.
 
Samford continues its weekend at the Magic City Classic tomorrow, facing UAB (7-4) at 5 p.m.