Box Score BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The Samford baseball team used strong pitching and defense to hand Memphis its first loss of the season in a 3-2 victory Saturday afternoon at Joe Lee Griffin Field.
 
"The biggest upside is we had three guys that threw the ball extremely well," Samford head coach Casey Dunn said. "I thought Alex (Ledford) was really, really good early. He got a little tired, which is to be expected early in the season, and left a couple of balls up, but he was phenomenal. Parker (Curry) had great feel for his pitching today, and obviously Andres (Gracia) did a great job of finishing it off."
 
Alex Ledford (1-0) pitched 5.0 innings, giving up two runs on five hits to earn his first win of the season. Parker Curry pitched 3.0 innings in relief, allowing just one hit, while striking out five batters without allowing a walk. Andres Gracia pitched the final inning, retiring the Tigers in order to pick up his first save of the season.
 
"Defensively, what a clean baseball game," Dunn said. "Alex and Parker did a great job of getting a lot of ground balls, and when you have that many ground balls and make that many plays without making an error, that's pretty impressive."
 
Offensively for Samford, Hunter Swilling went 2-for-3 at the plate. Tyler Filliben hit a solo home run in a 1-for-4 performance. Frankie Navarrete drove in two runs, going 1-for-2 in the win.
 
For Memphis, Zach Willis went 2-for-3 with a double and an RBI. Darien Tubbs went 2-for-4 at the plate for the Tigers. Colin Lee (0-1) pitched 6.0 innings, giving up three runs on seven hits in taking the loss on the mound for Memphis.
 
Samford plated all of its runs in the game in the first two innings. The Bulldogs scored one run in the first inning and two more in the second inning to jump out to an early 3-0 lead.
 
In the first inning, with one out, Filliben hit a solo home run to left-center field for the game's first run. The home run was the first of Filliben's Samford career and it gave the Bulldogs a 1-0 advantage.
 
In the second inning, with two outs, Brandon Powell singled to left-center field to get things started. Swilling then singled to left-center field, moving Powell to second base. The two runners then advanced a base each on a wild pitch. Navarrete then singled to right field to drive in Swilling and Powell for a 3-0 Samford lead.
 
The score remained 3-0 until Memphis plated two runs in the top of the fifth inning. With one out, Tubbs singled to right field. Willis then doubled to right-center field to drive in Tubbs to make the score 3-1. After Willis advanced to third base on a ground out, he scored on a wild pitch to bring Memphis to within one run at 3-2.
 
In the final four innings, Curry and Gracia combined to allow just one base runner as Memphis was unable to push the tying run across and Samford came away with the 3-2 win.
 
With the win, Samford improves to 2-3 on the young season. Memphis drops to 5-1 with the loss.
 
Samford and Memphis will play the deciding game of their series Sunday at 1 p.m. at Joe Lee Griffin Field. Live stats for the game will be available at www.samfordsports.com. Fans can also watch the game live online via Samford Sports TV at www.samfordsports.com/showcase.