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GREENVILLE, S.C. -- The Samford University baseball team used a top-notch pitching performance from senior Parker Curry and a pair of key blasts from sophomore Austin Edens and junior Heath Quinn on Saturday to register a critical 5-3 road victory against the Furman Paladins in the series finale held at Latham Stadium.
 
"There aren't really a lot of must-win games this early in the season, but I think today's game was a must-win," said Samford head coach Casey Dunn. "I don't know how we would have handled leaving here with another loss and at 0-3 in the league. It was a good win for us, and despite everything that happened this weekend, we're really only a game behind the pack."
 
With the win, Samford (13-11, 1-2 SoCon) registered its first conference victory of the season and improved to 4-6 when playing away from home this year. The Bulldogs will next be in action Tuesday at 6 p.m., on the road against the Jacksonville State Gamecocks.
 
Furman (10-13, 2-1 SoCon) had its four-game home winning streak snapped Saturday. All 10 of the Paladins' victories have been achieved at Latham Stadium this season and Furman's 5-3 loss to Samford proved to be its first home defeat since March 6.
 
The Bulldogs' Curry (2-1) earned his first start of the year and the 15^th start of his career Saturday. Curry, a native of Pelham, Alabama, hurled seven innings of three-hit baseball and only allowed one earned run on a solo homer from Sky Overton. Curry tallied three strikeouts in the victory and finished seven complete innings on only 80 total pitches.
 
After Curry's brilliant performance to start the game, Samford's Josh Rich and Wyatt Burns came on in the eighth and ninth innings, respectively, to shut the door on the Paladins. Burns struck out a pair of batters in a perfect ninth frame en route to his first save of the season.
 
"I was really happy with the way that Wyatt came in and pitched," Dunn said. "I thought that Furman was able to get a lot of the momentum back once they kept us from scoring in the top of the ninth, but then Wyatt came in and did a great job of closing out the game. He immediately faced their best hitter and struck him out, and once he did that he put himself in a great position to get the save."
 
Samford jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning as Quinn tallied his nation-leading 13^th home run of the season to right field. Following a leadoff single from T.J. Dixon, Quinn connected on a 2-0 pitch and sent it high to right field where it carried over the fence. Quinn's home run proved to be the 36^th of his career.
 
"Heath and Austin's home runs were both huge for us," Dunn said. "The wind was finally not blowing in from right field and that was big as well. Both of Heath and Austin's homers probably would have been routine fly balls yesterday, just as a few that we hit earlier in the series would have been home runs today. I also thought it was huge to be able to get the lead early."
 
The Bulldogs extended their advantage to 3-0 in the top of the second inning when Hunter Swilling battled back from an 0-2 count to draw an 11-pitch walk with the bases loaded. Swilling's RBI proved to be his 26^th of the season.
 
In the fifth, Samford's Edens hit what amounted to be the game-winning home run. With two outs and Alex Lee on second base, Edens powered his seventh round-tripper of the 2016 campaign to right field. Edens has already driven in 24 runs this year and boasts a .327 batting average.
 
Frankie Navarrete and Dixon both paced the Bulldogs' offensive attack Saturday with a pair three-hit performances at the plate. Navarrete finished 3-for-4 at the dish, while Dixon, Samford's speedy native of Mobile, Alabama, scored a run and upped his batting average to .298.
 
Senior Danny Rodriguez tallied a 2-for-4 outing, as Quinn, Lee and Edens all notched base hits as well.
 
Furman scored a run in the bottom of the fifth inning on Overton's solo shot. The Paladins later added two more scores in the eighth as Cameron Whitehead connected on a two-run homer to center field.
 
Since Dunn took the reins to the Samford baseball program in 2004, the Bulldogs own a 19-8 record against Furman.
 
The Samford University baseball team will next be in action Tuesday at 6 p.m. (CDT) as the Bulldogs match up with the Jacksonville State Gamecocks for a second straight non-conference contest – this time on the road in Jacksonville, Alabama, at JSU's Rudy Abbott Field.
 
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