BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Samford freshman Austin Edens went 5-for-5 and drove in five runs to lead an impressive offensive effort as the Bulldog baseball team earned a 13-4 win over Western Carolina in the first game of a three-game Southern Conference series Friday night at Joe Lee Griffin Field.
 
"We had a good night tonight offensively," Samford head coach Casey Dunn said. "Alex (Ledford) was really good on the mound early. He kind of ran out of gas in the seventh, but overall it was a really good outing by him and a great job by our guys offensively."
 
Edens had a home run, two doubles and two singles on the night. This marked the first time a Samford player has recorded five hits in a game since T.J. Dixon performed the feat, going 5-for-6 against Elon on April 5, 2014.
 
"He had five hard-hit balls," Dunn said of Edens' performance. "Usually when guys have those kinds of nights there's a seeing-eye single, but everything he hit was on the nose tonight."
 
Samford's Richard Greene went 3-for-5 with a double, a home run and three RBI. Frankie Navarrete went 3-for-5 with an RBI. Alex Lee went 2-for-4 with a double and two RBI, while Heath Quinn went 2-for-4 with a double.
 
Samford pitcher Alex Ledford (7-4) pitched 7.1 innings, giving up four runs on four hits to earn the win on the mound for the Bulldogs. He struck out seven batters, while walking just two. Eric Wright and Devan Traglia also saw time on the mound for the Bulldogs.
 
For Western Carolina, Matthew Koehler went 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI. Korey Anderson (3-4) pitched 5.1 innings, giving up 11 runs, 10 earned, on 15 hits to take the loss on the mound for the Catamounts.
 
Samford jumped on top early with a run in the first inning and four more in the second. In the first inning, Edens singled to left field to drive in Hunter Swilling for the game's first run. In the second inning, Edens drove in two runs with a double, and Dixon and Lee drove in a run each for a 5-0 Samford lead.
 
Samford pushed its lead to 8-0 with three runs in the fourth inning. Greene hit a three-run home run to left field, his 10^th homer of the season, to give Samford an eight-run advantage.
 
Western Carolina put its first run on the scoreboard in the top of the sixth inning. Koehler doubled to lead off the inning and later scored on a ground out by Matt Smith to cut the Samford lead to 8-1.
 
Samford plated three runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to make the score 11-1. Edens led the inning off with a home run to left field, his 13^th homer of the season. Navarrete reached base on an infield single to drive in Jared Watson, and Danny Rodriguez scored on an error on the play to give Samford a 10-run lead.
 
Western Carolina scored three runs in the top of the seventh inning to cut the Samford lead to 11-4. Bradley Strong tripled and scored on an error for the inning's first run. Koehler and Garrett Brown drove in a run each to bring Western Carolina to within seven runs of Samford.
 
The Bulldogs plated two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to make the final score 13-7. Edens and Lee drove in a run each in the inning for the game's final two runs.
 
With the win, Samford improves to 27-21 overall and 12-7 in Southern Conference play. Western Carolina falls to 18-25 overall and 9-10 in league games.
 
The teams will continue their series with a game Saturday at 2 p.m. at Joe Lee Griffin Field. The game can be heard locally on WVSU-FM 91.1, or worldwide on the internet at www.samford.edu/wvsu. The contest can also be viewed online via the SoCon Digital Network at www.socondigitalnetwork.com/samford.