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TROY, Ala. -- The Samford University baseball team's winning streak against in-state opponents came to an end at nine-consecutive games Tuesday as the Bulldogs dropped a 5-3 road decision versus the Troy Trojans in a midweek matchup held at Riddle-Pace Field.
 
"It was a tough loss, but if nothing else, I thought that we had some of our younger guys come in and really gave us some good at-bats tonight," said Samford head coach Casey Dunn. "I thought Damon (Waller) hit two balls on the nose, Gonzo (Anthony Gonzales) hit one that would have been a home run in pretty much every other park that we play in and Jordan (Fucci) got a really big hit. I also thought that Troy (Dixon) came in and gave us two very good at-bats."
 
With the loss, Samford (16-13) suffered its first defeat against an in-state opponent since April 7, 2015, when the Bulldogs were topped at home by Alabama. Since then, Samford rattled off consecutive victories in 2015 against Troy, 13-2, Alabama State, 6-2, UAB, 4-2, and Jacksonville State, 14-13.
 
Already this year, the Bulldogs have defeated UAB, 13-2, Troy, 20-6, Alabama State, 18-7, and Jacksonville State twice, 10-7 and 7-6. In total, Samford has outscored its in-state foes by a count of 71-33 this season and has tallied an average of 11.8 runs per matchup.
 
Troy (17-13) evened its annual home-and-home series with Samford at 1-1 for a second straight season and improved its record at Riddle-Pace Field to 11-4 in 2016. The Trojans have been victorious in five of their last six games held at home this year.
 
Neither team scored Tuesday until the third inning when the Bulldogs pushed across a run in the top of the stanza. Samford's senior catcher Richard Greene opened the frame by drawing a walk and then later scored on a double to center field from Hunter Swilling.
 
Swilling, the Bulldogs' talented junior third baseman, has already posted 14 doubles this season and entered Tuesday's game ranked No. 10 in the nation in the category. He finished with a 1-for-5 performance at the plate and drove in two of Samford's three runs on the night.
 
Following the Bulldogs' early run in the third inning, Troy answered with a rally of its own in the bottom half by sending eight batters to plate to scoring four runs.
 
The Trojans' TJ Binder opened the frame with a home run to right field as Justin Friend followed with a double off the wall in left center. Binder finished Tuesday's game 2-for-4 at the plate, while Friend tallied a 2-for-3 performance.
 
All four of Troy's runs were attributed to Samford starting pitcher Mikhail Cazenave (0-1) who retired his first six batters of the game, but then ran into trouble in the third frame.
 
"Mikhail threw really well for two innings, but then he just got the ball up and they hit it," Dunn said. "Those guys were seven, eight and nine in their order, he just elevated some balls and they took advantage of it. You know, it's really tough to put together a big inning without a walk or an error, but they managed to do it there in the third."
 
The Bulldogs sent eight pitchers to the mound Tuesday and accumulated seven strikeouts. Cazenave and Stephen Jones both tallied two innings of work, while Caleb Maggio, Jake Greer, Tanner Cunningham and Cody Shelton all notched one full inning of action.
 
"I thought that Tanner did a really nice job of coming out of the bullpen," Dunn said. "He did a great job of damage control and Cody Shelton also did a very good job in his inning. There were definitely a lot more positives than negatives coming out of today's game."
 
Samford scored its second run of the contest in the fourth inning to trim Troy's advantage to 4-2. The Bulldogs' two-out rally was started as Danny Rodriguez reached on a single deep into the hole at second base. On the next pitch, Greene blasted a double into the gap in right-center field and Rodriguez was able to speed all the way around from first base for the run.
 
Rodriguez finished 2-for-4 with two runs scored Tuesday, while Greene went 1-for-3 with a run scored and an RBI.
 
Troy tacked on a run in the bottom of the seventh inning to make the scored 5-2.
 
In the top of the ninth inning, Samford put together one last gasp and nearly pulled out its 10^th straight victory against in-state opponents.
 
The Bulldogs' Rodriguez singled to lead off the frame and later scored off an RBI groundout from Swilling. Then, following a walk from Troy Dixon and a base hit from T.J. Dixon, Samford had the bases loaded and two outs with Alex Lee up to bat.
 
"I thought Troy's at-bat there in the ninth inning was huge for a young guy to come in and battle for a walk in that situation," said Dunn. "He took some really tough pitches and earned a 3-2 walk, so I was really pleased in how Troy came in and performed as a young guy today. He and Jordan (Fucci) are really going to do big things for our program beginning next year."
 
T.J. Dixon helped pace Samford at the plate with a 2-for-5 performance.
 
Lee, who entered Tuesday's contest as one of the team's hottest hitters by batting .500 (8-of-16) last week, couldn't improve on his 1-for-4 outing against Troy as he one-hopped a hard-hit grounder to the pitcher for the final out of the game.
 
The Trojans' Evan Hebert (3-2) earned the win on the mound. He went four full innings and only allowed two earned runs on five hits.
 
The Samford University baseball team will next be in action Friday at 6 p.m. (CDT) as the Bulldogs begin play in a three-game home SoCon series against the Wofford Terriers.
 
This weekend's set will be held at Samford's Joe Lee Griffin Field with games also slated for Saturday at 2 p.m., and Sunday at 1 p.m. All three of the contests will be broadcast live on 91.1 FM, as well as the SoCon Digital Network.
 
For quick score updates, breaking news and links to all of your favorite articles featuring the Bulldogs, please follow @SamfordBaseball and @Samford_Sports on Twitter.

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