Box Score GREENSBORO, N.C. – The Samford baseball team dropped an 8-6 decision in the second game of a three-game series at UNCG Saturday afternoon at the UNCG Baseball Stadium.
 
UNCG hit three home runs, all to right field, to help power the Spartans past the Bulldogs. The series is now tied at a game apiece, and the deciding game is scheduled for Sunday at 12 p.m. (CT).
 
"Our guy's fought hard," Samford head coach Casey Dunn said. "I thought we played well defensively. We swung the bats okay, but we struck out way too many times. This is one of those days where we got beat more than we just lost."
 
For Samford in the loss, T.J. Dixon led the way, going 4-for-5 with two doubles and an RBI. Drew McWhorter drove in two runs, going 1-for-4 at the plate. Jared Brasher (2-4) pitched 5.0 innings, giving up six runs on six hits to take the loss on the mound for Samford.
 
UNCG was led at the plate by Tyler Long and Julian Abreu, with two hits, including one home run and two RBI each. Eric Kalbfleisch also homered in the game for UNCG, going 1-for-4. Nick Chapman went 2-for-4 with three RBI, while Jake Kusz went 2-for-4 for the Spartans.
 
Max Povse (6-3) pitched 7.0 innings, giving up six runs on eight hits to earn the win on the mound for UNCG. Tyler Frazier tossed the final 2.0 innings, allowing no runs on two hits to pick up his fourth save of the season.
 
UNCG grabbed an early lead with a run in the bottom of the first inning. With two outs in the inning, Kalbfleisch hit a home run to right field for a 1-0 UNCG lead.
 
Samford answered with a run in the top of the second inning to tie the score at 1-1. Heath Quinn walked to lead off the inning. Caleb Bryson then reached on a fielder's choice, with Quinn being retired at second base. With two outs, Frankie Navarrete singled up the middle to drive in Bryson for Samford's first run of the game.
 
The Spartans took the lead again in the bottom of the second inning. With one out in the inning, Abreu hit a home run to right field to make the score 2-1.
 
Samford took the lead with two runs in the top of the third inning. With one out in the inning, Dixon singled to right-center field, and then moved to second base on a balk.  With two outs, Dixon moved to third base on a wild pitch, and then scored on a single by McWhorter to tie the game. McWhorter moved to second base when Quinn was hit by a pitch. Bryson then singled to left-center field to drive in McWhorter to give Samford a 3-2 lead.
 
Samford added a run in the top of the fourth inning to push its lead to 4-2. With one out in the inning, Richard Greene reached base on a fielder's choice and went to second base on a wild pitch. Dixon then doubled to drive in Greene for a two-run Samford lead.
 
UNCG came back to tie the score with two runs in the bottom of the fourth inning. With one out in the inning, Tyler Long walked, and Abreu and Kusz singled to load the bases. Chapman then singled to drive in Abreu and Long to knot the score at 4-4.
 
The Spartans took the lead with three runs in the bottom of the sixth inning. Hunter King walked to lead off the inning. Long then homered to right field for a 6-4 UNCG lead. With one out Kusz tripled to center field. Chapman then singled to drive in Kusz to make the score 7-4.
 
Samford came back with two runs in the top of the seventh inning to close to within one run. With one out, Dixon doubled to start the rally. Tyler Filliben then tripled to drive in Dixon for the inning's first run. Filliben then scored when McWhorter grounded out to make the score 7-6.
 
UNCG added a run in the bottom of the eighth inning to push its lead to 8-6. Long tripled to center field to lead off the inning. Long then scored on a sacrifice fly by Abreu for the game's final run.
 
With the loss, Samford drops to 27-20 overall and 11-9 in Southern Conference play. UNCG improves to 21-20 overall and 8-9 in SoCon games.
 
The teams will conclude their series with a game Sunday at 12 p.m. (CT). The game can be heard locally on WVSU-FM 91.1, or worldwide on the internet at www.samford.edu/wvsu. Fans can also follow live stats through links on the baseball schedule page at www.samfordsports.com.