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GREENVILLE, S.C. -- The Samford University baseball team scored four runs in the final two innings of play, including a trio of scores in the ninth inning, but the Bulldogs' late rally came up just short with the tying run at the plate in an 8-5 loss against the Furman Paladins in the second game of a Southern Conference series held at Latham Stadium.
 
"It was a tough loss, but I thought we had some good at-bats today," said Samford head coach Casey Dunn. "We took walks, we got hit by pitches and Rob (Perteet) had a big hit for us. Their shortstop made a heck of a play on Austin (Edens) and he had to go a long way to make that stop, not to mention being able to make an accurate throw to first. I thought that was the play of the game, because if he doesn't make that stop, then we might still be playing.
 
Heading into the top of the eighth inning, Samford (12-11, 0-2 SoCon) trailed Furman (10-12, 2-0 SoCon), 8-1.
 
In the frame, the Bulldogs' Heath Quinn powerfully made the score 8-2 as Samford's junior right fielder crushed a deep solo home run to left field. Quinn's homer proved to be his 12^th of the season to lead the nation in the category.
 
The Bulldogs' late momentum didn't stop in the eighth inning. Samford's Danny Rodriguez and Richard Greene were both hit by pitches to open up the ninth. Sophomore Rob Perteet then pinch hit for the Bulldogs and sent an RBI single into the gap in left-center field. Rodriguez came home all the way from second base to trim the Paladins' lead to 8-3.
 
Later in the inning, with one out and the bases loaded, Quinn tallied another RBI on the day as he earned a four-pitch walk off of Furman relief pitcher Nolan Mullen. Quinn's base on balls scored Greene from third base to make the score 8-4.
 
In Samford's next at-bat, sophomore Austin Edens sent a screamer deep in the hole at shortstop, but the Paladins' Matt Towarnicky made a great play to his right to get the second out of the inning.
 
Despite Towarnicky's key defensive stop, the Bulldogs' T.J. Dixon scored to cut Furman's advantage to 8-5 with runners on second and third and Alex Lee coming up to bat.
 
Lee, Samford's senior native of Heflin, Alabama, reached base three times Friday and turned in a 1-for-3 performance at the plate, but the Bulldogs' All-SoCon first baseman struck out swinging to end the game in the top of the ninth.
 
"I told the guys before the inning that if we could get to Alex, then we would win the ballgame," said Dunn. "Sure enough we got to him, but their guy kind of quick-pitched us and we need to tip our hat to him. He did the same thing last night and the only frustrating thing is that we didn't have an answer for it at the time."
 
The Bulldogs finished with seven hits in the game. Dixon, Quinn, Edens, Lee, Rodriguez, Greene and Perteet all tallied base hits in the contest, but nobody on the team was able to put together a multi-hit performance.
 
Furman accumulated 16 hits Friday, 14 of which were singles. Sims Griffith, Brandon Elmy and Towarnicky all recorded three-hit outings for the Paladins as they scored two runs in the first, one run apiece in the second, fifth and eighth, and three big ones in the bottom of the seventh.
 
"I thought Furman did a good job of keeping the ball out of the air today," Dunn said. "They did a really good job of putting the ball on the ground and everything that we hit hard went right at them. Everything that they hit on the ground seemed to find a hole. It was just one of those games."
 
Right hander Matthew Quarles (3-1) started on the mound for Furman and only allowed one earned run on four hits in seven full innings of action. He tallied 101 pitches in the outing and struck out four Bulldogs.
 
Sophomore Tristan Widra (2-2) started for Samford and was tagged with the tough-luck loss after the Paladins scored three earned runs in the first two innings of play. The Bulldogs also sent Connor Radcliff, Wyatt Burns, Caleb Maggio, Cody Shelton and Connor Burns to the mound.
 
Samford's first run of the game was scored in the top of the fifth inning as Greene led off the inning with a single to left field and later crossed the plate on an RBI groundout from Hunter Swilling. The run driven in proved to be Swilling's 25^th of the season.
 
This weekend's SoCon-opening series at Furman will conclude Saturday at noon (CDT) with the third-and-final matchup of the three-game set being held at Latham Baseball Stadium.
 
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