BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The Samford baseball team fell behind early and never could catch up as the Bulldogs fell to Western Carolina by a score of 7-4 in the second game of a three-game Southern Conference series Saturday afternoon at Joe Lee Griffin Field.
 
Alex Lee led Samford at the plate, going 2-for-3 with a triple, a home run and three RBI. Parker Curry (6-6) pitched 6.2 innings, giving up five runs, just four earned, on six hits to take the loss on the mound for Samford. The Samford defense, however, committed three costly errors, allowing three unearned Western Carolina runs to score during the game.
 
Western Carolina was led by Danny Bermudez, going 2-for-5 at the plate. Bradley Strong and Spencer Holcomb each homered in the game for the Catamounts.
 
Bryan Sammons (4-4) pitched 6.0 innings, giving up four runs on five hits to earn the win on the mound for Western Carolina. Tyler Powell tossed the final 2.0 innings to pick up his seventh save of the season.
 
Western Carolina plated two runs in the first inning, two more runs in the second inning and another run in the third to take an early 5-0 lead. In the first inning, Strong hit a two-run homer, while Holcomb hit another two-run homer in the second for the first four runs of the game. In the third inning, Brett Pope doubled to drive in Bermudez for a five-run WCU advantage.
 
Samford came back with two runs in the fourth inning and two more in the sixth to cut the Western Carolina lead to 5-4. In the fourth inning, Lee tripled to drive in Austin Edens for the first run. Lee then scored on a wild pitch for the final run of the inning. In the sixth inning, Lee hit a two-run home run to center field to close Samford to within one run of Western Carolina.
 
In the top of the eighth inning, Western Carolina plated two unearned runs to push its lead to 7-4. Pierce Suttles and Kramer Ferrell both scored on Samford errors to give WCU a three-run lead.
 
With the loss, Samford falls to 27-22 overall and 12-8 in Southern Conference games. Western Carolina improves to 19-25 overall and 10-10 in SoCon contests.
 
The teams will conclude their series with a game Sunday at 3:30 p.m. at Joe Lee Griffin Field. The game will be televised live on the American Sports Network, with WABM My 68 serving as the local affiliate. The contest can also be heard locally on WVSU-FM 91.1, or worldwide on the internet at www.samford.edu/wvsu.