BIRMINGHAM, Ala.—The Samford baseball team swept a doubleheader from Furman, winning the games by scores of 12-6 and 7-6 Saturday afternoon at Joe Lee Griffin Field.
With the wins, Samford takes the Southern Conference series from the Paladins, two games to one. Samford improves to 8-12 overall and 2-1 in SoCon play. Furman drops to 11-11 overall and 1-2 in league games.
In the first game, Samford jumped on top early, leading 9-2 after three innings. Furman, however, came back to cut the lead to 9-6, but Samford plated three runs in the seventh inning to put the game away on the way to the 12-6 win.
Parker Curry (2-3) pitched 5.0 innings, giving up six runs, four earned, on five hits to earn the win on the mound for the Bulldogs in the first game.
Andres Gracia pitched the final 2.1 innings to pick up his third save of the season.
"We got up early in the first game and we thought we were in good shape, but they mounted an attack at us," Samford head coach
Casey Dunn said. "These guys don't give up, they fight and they made a good fight to come back. Andres was huge for us, bailing us out of it and we were able to tack on some runs late."
Samford was led at the plate in game one by
Alex Lee, going 2-for-3 with five RBI.
Jared Watson went 2-for-5 with a double and two RBI.
Hunter Swilling and
Richard Greene had two hits each for Samford in game one, and
Heath Quinn drove in two runs, going 1-for-4 at the plate.
For Furman in game one, Jordan Simpson went 2-for-3 with a home run and two RBI. Blake Chisolm went 2-for-5 with two RBI for the Paladins. Ryan Morse (2-4) pitched 1.0 inning, giving up four runs on two hits to take the loss on the mound in the first game.
In the second game of the doubleheader, Furman plated three runs in the first inning, two runs in the fourth inning and one run in the fifth to take a 6-0 lead. Samford, however, plated seven runs in the sixth inning to take a 7-6 lead. The Bulldog pitchers and defense held the lead the rest of the way as Samford came away with the one-run victory.
"To get down, and to keep battling and get some big hits to fight through the adversity was huge for us," Dunn said. "We had a couple of big home runs and a couple of other big hits."
Samford was led in game two by
Danny Rodriguez, going 2-for-3 with a home run and one RBI. Swilling also homered for Samford in game two, going 1-for-5 with two RBI. Greene, Lee and
Austin Edens had two hits each for Samford in game two.
On the mound in the second game,
Eric Wright (1-2) pitched 2.0 innings in relief, giving up one unearned run on two hits to earn the win for the Bulldogs. Gracia picked up his fourth save of the season and his second of the day, pitching the final inning for Samford.
Jake Jones led Furman in game two, going 3-for-5 at the plate. Andrew MacLatchie homered for the Paladins, going 1-for-4 with two RBI. Will Gaddis (2-1) tossed 5.2 innings, giving up seven runs, two earned, on seven hits to take the loss for Furman.
In the seventh inning of game two, Furman held a 6-0 advantage. Rodriguez led the inning off with a home run to right field to start the rally. Watson then walked, followed by a two-run home run by Swilling to cut the Furman lead to 6-3. With one out,
Damon Waller struck out, but reached base on a wild pitch. Edens and Lee then had back-to-back singles to load the bases with one out.
Waller then scored on a sacrifice fly by
Robert Perteet to make the score 6-4. Greene then singled and advanced to second base on an error, driving in Lee, and Edens scored on the error to tie the game at 6-6. Greene moved to third base on an infield single by Rodriguez. Watson then singled to center field to drive in Greene for a 7-6 Samford lead.
In the top of the seventh inning, Furman loaded the bases with one out. The Samford defense, however, turned a double play to end the threat and maintain the 7-6 lead. The Paladins never seriously threatened in the last two innings as Samford came away with the one-run win.
Samford will return to action on Tuesday, March 24, when the Bulldogs travel to Montgomery, Ala., to take on Alabama State. The game is scheduled for a 6 p.m. start.
