STARKVILLE, Miss.—The Samford baseball team wrapped up play in the Diamond Classic by falling to Arizona, 12-5 and 13th-ranked Mississippi State by a score of 6-2 Sunday at Dudy Noble Field.
In the Arizona game, Samford was led by Austin Edens, going 3-for-4 at the plate. Damon Waller has two hits and two RBI, while Hunter Swilling and Heath Quinn had two hits and an RBI each. Anthony Gonzalez drove in two runs in a 1-for-3 performance. Richard Greene also had two hits for Samford.
Parker Curry (0-2) took the loss on the mound for Samford. He pitched 3.1 innings in relief, giving up seven runs, six earned, on nine hits. Cole Limbaugh, Philip Flach and Devan Traglia also saw time on the mound in game one for Samford.
For Arizona, Scott Kingery went 5-for-5 with a double and two RBI. Tyler Krause and Zach Gibbons each homered in the game for the Wildcats. Matt Hartman (1-0) pitched 1.1 innings in relief, allowing no runs on four hits to earn the win on the mound for Arizona.
Arizona took the early lead with a run in the top of the first inning. Samford, however, came back with four runs in the bottom of the inning to take a 4-1 lead. The Wildcats answered with three runs in the top of the second inning to knot the score at 4-4.
Arizona took the lead again with two runs in the top of the fourth inning. Samford plated a run of its own in the bottom of the fourth inning to cut the Arizona lead to 6-5. The Wildcats then plated three runs in the fifth inning, two runs in the sixth and one more in the ninth to make the final score 12-5.
For Samford in the Mississippi State game, Waller went 2-for-4 with two RBI. Eric Wright (0-2) took the loss on the mound for Samford, tossing 3.2 innings, giving up three runs on five hits and striking out four batters.
Mississippi State was led by Seth Heck, going 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI. Jacob Robson also had two hits for MSU. Vance Tatum (2-0) earned the win for Mississippi State, pitching 8.0 innings, giving up two runs on two hits and striking out 12 batters.
Mississippi State scored a run in the bottom of the first inning to take an early 1-0 lead. Samford came back with a run in the top of the fourth inning to tie the game at 1-1.
MSU took the lead for good with two runs in the fourth inning and two more in the fifth to take a 5-1 lead. Mississippi State pushed its lead to 6-1 with a run in the bottom of the eighth inning, and Samford plated one final run in the top of the ninth inning to make the final score 6-2.
With the losses Samford falls to 3-8 on the young season. Arizona improves to 10-4, while Mississippi State is now 13-0.
Samford will return to action on Tuesday, March 3, when the Bulldogs host cross-town rival UAB. The first pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m. at Joe Lee Griffin Field.
