Game One Box Score
Game Two Box Score
Updated Samford Stats

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- After rolling to an 18-6 triumph in the opening game of Tuesday's doubleheader against Alabama A&M, the Samford University baseball team seemed poised to cruise to a victory in game two, but A&M thought differently as the visiting Bulldogs registered a 7-5 win in the nightcap to split the one-day midweek series.
 
"There aren't many positives to take away from this tonight," said Samford head coach Casey Dunn. "This was a tough day for us and we didn't play well. We didn't pitch well and the bottom line is that it wasn't a good day of baseball for us. It carries over the theme of the season where we can't string together any positive momentum. I'm really disappointed in our effort and our competitive fire."
 
With Tuesday's doubleheader split, Samford (21-17) moves to 7-2 against in-state opponents this season. The Bulldogs also moved to 15-8 when playing at home this year.
 
Samford suffered just its second loss to Alabama A&M (10-32) since Dunn took over as head coach in 2004. During his tenure as the most winningest coach in school history, the Bulldogs are now 11-2 versus Alabama A&M.
 
GAME ONE - - SAMFORD def. ALABAMA A&M, 18-6 (7)
In Tuesday's first game of the doubleheader, the Bulldogs exploded for 10 runs in the opening two innings and held a 10-1 advantage heading into the third inning.
 
Samford's Austin Edens hit a pair of three-run homers in the first two frames and finished 2-for-3 with six RBI and three runs scored in the victory. Edens, the Bulldogs' sophomore slugger from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has now hit six home runs in his last five games, including a trio of two-homer outings.
 
Edens has now hit 14 home runs on the season and is currently ranked fourth in the nation in the category.
 
Samford later extended its lead to 16-1 as junior starting pitcher Mikhail Cazenave (2-1) tallied his second victory of the season. The Bulldogs' native of Rainbow City struck out six Alabama A&M hitters in five full innings pitched and improved his earned-run average on the season to 6.41.
 
Alabama A&M used a grand slam from catcher Ryan Thrasher to score five runs in the top of the sixth inning. Samford then answered with two runs of its own to solidify the final 18-6 victory. The Bulldogs' double-digit scoring outing proved to be their 15^th of the season.
 
Already this season, Samford has outscored its opposition by a total of 286-190.
 
Along with Edens' game-breaking performance, the Bulldogs' Hunter Swilling, Heath Quinn, Alex Lee and Damon Waller all finished with two hits apiece. Waller, Samford's senior left fielder from Atlanta, Georgia, blasted his first home run of the season well over the wall in left-center field. He finished 2-for-4 from the field with four RBI and four runs scored.
 
The Bulldogs' Ben Carrick drove in three runs and finished 1-for-3 at the plate Tuesday. Pitchers Connor Burns and Cody Shelton also earned time on the mound in the game as Samford won via a seven-inning run-rule.
 
"Even in the first game, I thought that Mikhail (Cazenave) did a good job, but we didn't really even finish that out very well," said Dunn. "It was a disappointing night all around."
 
GAME TWO - - ALABAMA A&M def. SAMFORD, 7-5 (7)
In a prescheduled seven-inning contest, Alabama A&M's starting pitcher Brandon Marsonek (3-8) hurled six quality stanzas and earned his third victory of the 2016 campaign. Marsonek allowed nine hits and five earned runs, while striking out four. He also netted 128 total pitches before teammate Josh Burchell struck out two in the seventh inning to tally the save.
 
Conversely, Samford's pitchers walked nine batters Tuesday and allowed six earned runs on seven base hits. Junior Tanner Cunningham (1-1) was issued the loss after allowing two runs on one walk and a hit in the fourth inning.
 
"We didn't throw strikes and that's the bottom line," Dunn said. "We did a lot of things to stub our toe, but mainly we didn't throw strikes. We didn't make a couple plays and we didn't do a good job behind the plate. We can run the gamut of things that we did poorly."
 
Alabama A&M jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning, but Samford quickly battled back to even the score at 2-2 in the third.
 
In the top of the fourth inning, Alabama A&M broke the game apart with as left fielder Eric Yarbrough tallied a three-run double by placing a shot down the left-field line. He finished the game 1-for-3 at the plate with three RBI.
 
The Bulldogs' top performers in the second game were Edens and Swilling. Edens went 3-for-4 in the nightcap, while Swilling scored twice and added an RBI on a 2-for-3 performance at the plate. T.J. Dixon, Lee, Jordan Fucci, Frankie Navarrete and Jared Watson all added base hits.
 
Samford was able to score two runs in the bottom of the fifth to trim Alabama A&M's lead to 5-4, but then the visiting Bulldogs tallied two more in the top of the sixth by scoring two runs on four walks and an error.
 
"Right now, I'm just focused on us and what we need to do to get better as a club," said Dunn. "We have to do a lot of soul-searching. I thought I was going to be able to find a lot of answers tonight, but instead we found a lot of question marks."
 
The Samford University baseball team will next be in action Friday at 6 p.m. (CDT) as the Bulldogs continue play in their six-game non-conference homestand with a series-opening matchup versus the Kansas Jayhawks to be held at Joe Lee Griffin Field.
 
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Game One Box Score
Game Two Box Score
Updated Samford Stats