BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The Samford University softball team tallied 28 hits en route to victories over Valparaiso University (6-5) and Alabama State University (10-4) on Friday, Feb. 20, at Samford Field.

In the midst of a chilly afternoon of softball the Bulldogs offense mustered 16 runs and another walk-off victory to improve to 10-2 on the season.

Samford opened up the day against Valparaiso and continued to show why they never give up. The Bulldogs fell behind early 1-0 after the team gave up one run in the top of the first to the Crusaders and eventually 2-0 after VU tacked on another run in the third.

SU bounced back in the bottom of the third after the team plated its first run of the afternoon to close the VU lead down to 2-1 on a Caitlin Bice RBI double to right center field with two outs that scored Caroline Wilder.

The Bulldogs took the lead 3-2 in the fourth on sophomore Abbie Miranda's two-run homerun over the wall in left field.

Valparaiso evened the game at 3-3 after the Crusaders smashed an RBI double to left field. Sophomore Jessica Stone pitched five solid innings before being replaced by fellow sophomore Grey Adams (4-0).

Adams gave up a two-run home run in the sixth to give VU the 5-3 edge over SU and set the stage for another thrilling comeback by the Bulldogs.

The Bulldogs closed the lead down to 5-4 in the bottom of the sixth when junior Megan Dowdy sent scorcher right back up the center of the Crusader defense for an RBI single.

Abby Adams, Callie Brister and Hannah Taylor all doubled with one out to win the game in walk-off fashion and extend Samford's win streak to five games.

Samford's path to victory against Alabama State lacked the last-minute heroics of a walk-off victory but it was just as impressive as SU 16 hits to go along with 10 runs scored.

The Bulldogs only trailed once in the contest after giving up the initial run of the game in the first inning and pulled away from the Hornets after the team posted three runs in the in the third to take a 5-2 lead.

Rebecca Leonard pitched a complete-game with three strikeouts to earn her first victory of the year.

Dowdy and freshman Shelby Maze paced the offense with six hits each while Dowdy stood out more with five RBI, one run scored and a walk.

Sophomore Abby Sweeney tallied a 3 for 5 performance at the plate with a team high four runs scored to go along with three RBI.

The Bulldogs wrap up the Samford Tournament with a pair of games on Saturday, Feb. 21, against Valparaiso at 11:15 a.m. and Houston Baptist at 1:30 p.m.