BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The Samford baseball team scored four runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to come from behind and earn a 16-14 win over Western Carolina in the third game of the teams' Southern Conference series Sunday afternoon at Joe Lee Griffin Field.
The game lasted four hours and 46 minutes, and the teams combined to throw 407 pitches. The teams also finished with a combined 30 runs and 25 hits.
"All I can say is I'm glad it's over and I'm glad we won," Samford head coach
Casey Dunn said. "We had some big hits today, and that is encouraging. We hit a lot of balls hard up the middle, we really stayed above the baseball and I am really proud of our effort today."
Samford was led offensively by
Heath Quinn, going 3-for-5 with two home runs and six RBI. Quinn's two homers give Samford 70 for the season, tying the school record set by the 2010 squad.
Behind Quinn for Samford,
Hunter Swilling went 3-for-5 with a double and an RBI.
Alex Lee went 3-for-4 with an RBI, while
T.J. Dixon went 3-for-6 with a double and a triple.
Danny Rodriguez turned in a 2-for-3 performance for the Bulldogs.
Andres Gracia (2-0) pitched the final 3.0 innings, giving up one run on one hit to earn the win on the mound for Samford. Gracia, who was one of six pitchers used by Samford in the game, struck out four batters and walked just one.
Tristan Widra,
Philip Flach,
Mark Donham,
Devan Traglia and
Eric Wright also pitched in the game for Samford.
For Western Carolina, Kramer Ferrell went 2-for-4 with two home runs and seven RBI. Pierce Suttles went 2-for-5 with a home run and one RBI. Spencer Holcomb also homered for Western Carolina, going 1-for-5 in the contest.
Western Carolina used a total of nine pitchers in the game. Tyler Powell (2-2) pitched two-thirds of an inning, giving up four runs on four hits to take the loss for the Catamounts. Powell recorded one strikeout without allowing a walk.
Samford grabbed the early lead with a run in the bottom of the first inning. Western Carolina, however answered with a run in the top of the second inning to knot the score at 1-1.
The Bulldogs then plated six runs in the bottom of the second inning to take a 7-1 lead. In the inning, Quinn hit a three-run home run,
Richard Greene drove in two runs, and Edens scored on a balk to give Samford a six-run lead.
The lead did not last long, however, as Western Carolina came back with seven runs in the top of the third inning to take an 8-7 lead. Ferrell hit a three-run home run, and Holcomb, Matt Smith and Danny Bermudez drove in a run each in the inning. Brett Pope also scored on an error in the inning as WCU came back to take the one-run lead.
Western Carolina added to its lead with five runs in the top of the fifth inning to make the score 13-7. Ferrell hit a grand slam to account for most of the damage in the inning. Bradley Strong also drove in a run as WCU stretched its lead to six runs.
Samford plated four runs in the bottom of the fifth inning and one more in the sixth to cut the lead to 13-12. In the fifth inning,
Brandon Powell drove in two runs, and Swilling and Lee drove in a run each. In the sixth inning, Dixon scored on a passed ball to close Samford to within one run of Western Carolina.
After Western Carolina stretched its lead to 14-12 with a run in the top of the eighth inning, Samford took the lead for good with four runs in the bottom of the eighth. Quinn hit a two-run homer to center field to score the first two runs and tie the score. Lee scored the go-ahead run in a wild pitch.
Parker Curry later delivered a pinch-hit single to drive in Rodriguez to give Samford a 16-14 lead.
With the win, Samford wins the series from Western Carolina, two games to one. Samford improves to 28-22 overall and 13-8 in Southern Conference games. Western Carolina falls to 19-26 overall and 10-11 in SoCon games.
Samford will return to action on Thursday, May 14, when the Bulldogs open a SoCon series at league-leading Mercer. The teams are scheduled to play Thursday at 5 p.m. (CT), Friday at 5 p.m. (CT) and Saturday at 5:30 p.m. (CT).
