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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- With one out in the bottom of the eighth inning Sunday, Samford's Heath Quinn connected on a 3-1 breaking ball and sent it deep over the wall in left-center field for a two-run homer. Quinn's nation-leading 14^th home run of the season gave the Bulldogs a decisive 3-1 advantage against Mercer as they clinched the victory and won the Southern Conference's marquee series of the weekend held at Joe Lee Griffin Field.
 
"Today, we made some big pitches, we made some big defensive plays and we also did what we do, we hit a couple of balls out of the park," said Samford associate head coach Tony David. "This was a very well-pitched game all the way around and I thought the umpire had a nice consistent zone throughout the game. Parker Curry did an outstanding job on the mound and he played a huge role in this win for us today."
 
David filled in as the head coach of the Bulldogs Sunday after Head Coach Casey Dunn was thrown out of Saturday's game by the umpiring crew and was therefore forced to miss a conference game, per SoCon rules.
 
With Sunday's triumph, Samford (16-12, 3-3 SoCon) improved to 11-6 at home this season and proved to be victorious in four of its last five outings. Next up, the Bulldogs will travel to Troy for a midweek in-state contest to be held at the Trojans' Riddle Pace Field at 6 p.m. (CDT).
 
Mercer (17-12, 3-3 SoCon), the defending SoCon regular-season and tournament champion, suffered its first series loss since March 13, when the Bears were swept on the road by College of Charleston. Since then, Mercer swept Kennesaw State and took two out of three at home against Wofford last week.
 
"There's no question that winning this weekend's series was special for us," David said. "You can sugarcoat it and all that, but we finished first and second last year, they beat us in the championship game of the tournament and we had to watch them celebrate.
 
"Today's win doesn't allow us to celebrate a bunch, but I told Parker Curry last Saturday after game three against Furman that it's still early, but I hope we look back at today's game as a season-saver. Now, I'm hoping we also look back at this weekend against Mercer and look at it as a season-saver weekend."
 
With the score knotted at 1-1 and one out in the bottom of the eighth inning, Samford's Hunter Swilling tallied his second hit of the game with a laser through the left side of the infield. He then scored the Bulldogs' game-winning run as Quinn's blast skied high and over the left-field wall.
 
Quinn's game-winning homer proved to be his first hit of the game as he went 1-for-4 at the plate with one run scored and two RBI.
 
Samford's Swilling gave his squad an early 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning as he powered a long home run to left field. Swilling's sixth home run of the season came on a 2-2 pitch from Mercer's starting pitcher Kevin Coulter.
 
"There are going to be times when we get great hitting all throughout the order," David said. "But in league play, when you're in all of these games that matter, you're going to need your 2-3-4 guys to consistently get those big hits. It doesn't always have to be a home run, although in our world it most likely is, but you need to get those big hits from the middle of your lineup."
 
The Bulldogs' Parker Curry started for Samford and registered 6.1 innings of stellar one-run baseball. He threw 94 pitches, faced 27 batters and notched four key strikeouts, while only allowing six base hits. With his performance, Curry improved his earned run average to 1.50 this season.
 
Mercer scored its lone run of the game in the top of the seventh inning. The Bulldogs' pitching staff limited the Bears to seven base hits Sunday and tallied eight strikeouts.
 
Samford's Josh Rich (1-1) came in to pitch in the seventh inning and earned the victory. He tallied two strikeouts in just 1.2 innings and improved his earned run average on the season to 3.10.
 
Wyatt Burns pitched the ninth inning and closed the door on the Bears. He faced four batters, struck out two and earned his second save of the season.
 
"I thought our guys did a really good job against their lineup," said David. "We came in with a fairly specific pitching plan of what we wanted to do against their guys and I thought we did a really good job of attacking and throwing strikes."
 
Offensively, the Bulldogs compiled three runs on nine hits and were paced by Swilling, Alex Lee and Jared Watson. Swilling and Lee both turned in 2-for-4 outings at the plate, while Watson finished 2-for-3 against Mercer on Sunday.
 
The Bears' Conard Broom (3-1) was tagged with the loss Sunday, his first of the 2016 campaign.
 
The Samford University baseball team will next be in action Tuesday at 6 p.m. (CDT) as the Bulldogs travel to face Troy in a midweek non-conference contest to be held at Riddle Pace Field.
 
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