SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The Samford baseball team earned its ninth-straight win in an 8-3 victory at Wofford in the first game of a three-game Southern Conference series Friday night at Russell C. King Field.
 
Samford improves to 23-17 overall and 10-3 in Southern Conference play. The Bulldogs' nine-game streak is the longest since winning nine in a row early in the 2014 season. Wofford falls to 28-15 overall and 6-6 in SoCon games.
 
The Samford offense hit three home runs in the game, bringing its nation-leading total to 58 so far this season. Individually for Samford, Hunter Swilling went 4-for-5 with a home run, a triple and three RBI. Alex Lee went 2-for-5 with a home run and an RBI. Austin Edens also homered for Samford, going 1-for-4 with an RBI.
 
"Anytime you can win on a Friday, it's a big deal, especially to do it on the road against a guy that was undefeated coming in" Samford head coach Casey Dunn said. "We did a great job off of (Matthew) Milburn early, and that was a great job by our guys of being aggressive early in the game. He made some really good adjustments and we struggled until the fourth to adjust to what he was doing."
 
Alex Ledford (6-3) pitched 8.0 innings, giving up three runs on six hits to earn the win on the mound for Samford. Ledford struck out seven batters, while walking just three. Mark Donham pitched the ninth inning, retiring Wofford in order to close out the game.
 
"This was more of the same for Alex," Dunn said. "A lot of ground balls, a lot of early-count swings, and we played really well defensively behind him. It was a clean game by the infield, and if we do that when he pitches, we are going to be in it."
 
For Wofford, Matt Ramsay and Mack Nathanson drove in a run each for the Terriers. Matthew Milburn (8-1) pitched 5.0 innings, giving up seven runs, six earned, on nine hits to take his first loss of the season for Wofford.
 
Samford got off to a hot start, plating three runs in the top of the first inning. Swilling, Edens and Lee each hit a solo home run in the inning as Samford grabbed the early 3-0 lead.
 
Wofford came back with one run in the bottom of the third inning to cut the Samford lead to 3-1. Ramsay singled through the left side of the infield to drive in Derek Hirsch for Wofford's first run of the game.
 
The Bulldogs extended their lead with four runs in the top of the fourth inning. Richard Greene singled to drive in Jared Watson for the first run of the inning. Swilling later singled to drive in Greene and Frankie Navarrete. The inning's final run was scored when Heath Quinn singled to drive in Swilling for a 7-1 Samford lead.
 
The Terriers scored a run in the sixth inning and another run in the eighth to close to within four runs at 7-3. In the sixth inning, Alec Paradowski singled to lead off the inning and later scored on a Samford error. In the eighth inning, Nathanson singled to drive in James Plaisted.
 
Samford added a run in the top of the ninth inning to make the final score 8-3. Swilling led the inning off with a triple. He then scored on a sacrifice fly by Quinn for a five-run Samford lead.
 
The teams will continue their series with a game Saturday at 2 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 online at www.socondigitalnetwork.com/samford.