STARKVILLE, Miss.—The Samford baseball team fell to Arizona by a score of 7-1 on the first day of the Mississippi State Tournament Friday afternoon at Dudy-Noble Field.

Austin Edens was responsible for all of Samford's hits, going 2-for-4 and scoring the team's lone run in the game. Richard Greene drove in the run on a ground out in the seventh inning. Alex Ledford (1-2) pitched 7.0 innings, giving up seven runs on nine hits to take the loss on the mound for Samford. Ledford struck out six batters in the contest.

For Arizona, Bobby Dalbec went 3-for-3 with four RBI. Zach Gibbons drove in two runs, going 1-for-3 at the plate. Tyger Talley (2-0) earned the win on the mound for Arizona, tossing 6.0 innings, giving up one run on two hits. Cody Hamlin pitched the final 3.0 innings to earn his second save of the season.

Arizona took the lead with three runs in the bottom of the third inning. Gibbons walked to lead off the inning. Gibbons later scored on a Samford error for a 1-0 Wildcat lead. Dalbec later singled up the middle to drive in Kevin Newman and Justin Behnke to make the score 3-0.

The Wildcats added two runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to push their lead to 5-0. Gibbons singled to right-center field to drive in Joseph Maggi and Dalbec for Arizona's fourth and fifth runs of the game.

Samford got on the scoreboard with a run in the top of the seventh inning. Edens reached base on an infield single and advanced to second base on an error to start the inning. After moving to third base on a ground out, Edens scored on a ground out by Greene to make the score 5-1.

The Wildcats came back with two more runs of their own in the bottom of the seventh inning to push their lead to 7-1. Dalbec singled up the middle to drive in Newman and Scott Kingery for a six-run Arizona lead.

With the loss, Samford falls to 3-5 on the season. Arizona improves to 9-2 with the win.

Samford will take on the host Mississippi State Bulldogs Saturday. The game is scheduled to start at approximately 2:30 p.m., following the day's first game between MSU and Arizona, which starts at 11 a.m. The Samford-MSU game will be broadcast live on The SEC Network+.