JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. – The Samford baseball team scored nine runs in the second inning and never looked back on its way to a 15-4 win in game one of a three-game Southern Conference series at East Tennessee State Friday night at Thomas Stadium.
 
The remainder of the weekend series has been changed due to expected inclement weather. The teams will now play a doubleheader Saturday at 12:05 p.m. (CST).
 
"That is as good of an offensive inning as we've had in 11 years here," Samford head coach Casey Dunn said of the second inning. "I thought our guys swung the bats really well. There were a lot of hard-hit balls and some two-strike hits that were big for us."
 
Offensively for Samford, Alex Lee went 4-for-5 with two doubles and an RBI. Richard Greene went 3-for-5 with a home run and two RBI. Jared Watson went 3-for-4 with two RBI, and Austin Edens went 2-for-4 with a home run, a double and two RBI. T.J. Dixon, Heath Quinn and Frankie Navarrete added two hits each for Samford.
 
Alex Ledford (5-3) pitched 8.0 innings, giving up four runs on seven hits to earn the win on the mound for Samford. Cole Limbaugh pitched the final inning, allowing just one hit to close out the game for Samford.
 
"That was a good job by Alex of competing without his best stuff," Dunn said. "He really did a good job of keeping the ball on the ground. In what is a hitter-friendly park, he did a good job of not letting them elevate."
 
For ETSU offensively, Aaron Maher went 2-for-4 with a home run and two RBI. Trey York went 2-for-5 for the Bucs. Lee Haeberle (3-6) pitched 1.1 innings, allowing eight runs on seven hits to take the loss on the mound for ETSU.
 
Samford got off to a hot start, plating nine runs on 10 hits in the top of the second inning. In the inning, Samford sent 13 batters to the plate. Edens homered and doubled, driving in two runs in the inning. Lee and Watson also had two hits each in the inning for Samford.
 
In the second inning, Edens and Quinn drove in two runs each. Lee, Hunter Swilling, Watson and Navarrete drove in a run each as Samford grabbed the early 9-0 lead.
 
The Bulldogs plated another run in the top of the third inning to push their lead to 10-0. Greene singled to lead off the inning and later scored on a sacrifice fly by Swilling for a 10-run Samford advantage.
 
East Tennessee State put its first runs of the game on the scoreboard in the bottom of the third inning, plating two runs to cut the Samford lead to 10-2. After Jordan Sanford drew a lead-off walk, Maher hit a two-run home run for the Bucs' first two runs of the game.
 
Samford came back with two more runs in the top of the fourth inning to stretch its lead to 12-2. Watson and Danny Rodriguez drove in a run each to push Samford's lead back to 10 runs.
 
The Bulldogs plated two more runs in the top of the sixth inning to make the score 14-2. Greene hit a two-run home run for a 12-run Bulldog advantage.
 
ETSU plated two runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to cut the Samford lead to 14-4. Maher and Danny Carrier drove in a run each to bring the Bucs to within 10 runs of Samford.
 
Samford plated one final run in the top of the ninth inning to make the final score 15-4. With two outs in the inning, Navarrete walked. Dixon then tripled to right-center field to drive in Navarrete for the game's final run.
 
The game marked the fifth-straight game Samford has scored at least 10 runs. Samford improves to 19-17 overall and 7-3 in Southern Conference play. ETSU falls to 14-22 overall and 3-7 in SoCon games.
 
The teams will conclude their series with a doubleheader Saturday at 12:05 p.m. (CST). The games can be heard locally on WVSU-FM 91.1 or worldwide on the internet at www.samford.edu/wvsu. The games can also be viewed online via the SoCon Digital Network at www.socondigitalnetwork.com/samford.