LEXINGTON, Va.—The Samford baseball team scored 15 runs and pounded out 18 hits on its way to a 15-2 win in the first game of a three-game Southern Conference series at VMI Friday night at Gray-Minor Stadium.
 
Hunter Swilling led the Samford offense, going 4-for-4 with two home runs and five RBI. Jared Watson went 4-for-5 with an RBI. Austin Edens went 3-for-4 with a double, a home run and four RBI, while Danny Rodriguez went 3-for-5 with a double, a home run and three RBI.
 
Alex Ledford (3-2) pitched 7.0 innings, giving up one run on seven hits to earn the win on the mound for the Bulldogs. Ledford struck out seven batters and allowed just two walks. Eric Wright and Caleb Maggio also saw time on the mound for Samford.
 
For VMI, Thomas Stallings went 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI. Jacob Jaye went 2-for-3 at the plate for the Keydets. Austin Heenan (0-2) pitched 5.2 innings, giving up eight runs on nine hits to take the loss on the mound for VMI.
 
Samford jumped out to an early lead with two runs in the first inning and two more in the third. In the first inning, Edens doubled to left-center field to drive in Swilling and Watson for the game's first two runs. In the third inning, Swilling homered to right field with Watson on base for a 4-0 Samford lead.
 
The Bulldogs plated two more runs in the top of the fifth inning and two additional runs in the sixth inning. In the fifth inning, Heath Quinn and Edens drove in a run each. The runs in the sixth inning were scored on RBI by Richard Greene and Watson to make the score 8-0.
 
VMI put its first run on the scoreboard in the bottom of the sixth inning. Stallings singled to left field to drive in Brandon Angus to cut the Samford lead to 8-1.
 
Samford broke the game open with six runs in the top of the seventh inning. Rodriguez hit a three-run home run to make the score 11-1. Later in the inning, Swilling hit another three-run homer for a 14-1 Samford advantage.
 
The Bulldogs plated their final run in the top of the eighth inning to push their lead to 15-1. Edens led the inning off with a solo home run to right-center field for a 14-run Samford lead.
 
The Keydets added one final run in the bottom of the ninth inning to make the final score 15-2. Collin Fleischer singled to right-center field to drive in Jordan Tarsovich for the game's final run.  
 
With the win, Samford improves to 10-13 overall and 3-1 in Southern Conference play. VMI falls to 5-13 overall and 1-3 in league games.
 
Samford and VMI will continue their series with a game Saturday at 3 p.m. (CST). The game can be heard locally on WVSU-FM 91.1, or worldwide on the internet at www.samford.edu/wvsu. The game can also be viewed on the SoCon Digital Network.