Game 1 -- Friday, 5 p.m. (CDT):  Video  |  Radio  |  Live Stats
Game 2 -- Saturday, 1 p.m. (CDT):  Video  |  Radio  |  Live Stats
Game 3 -- Sunday, Noon (CDT):  Video  |  Radio  |  Live Stats

Samford Game Notes  |  Tickets

CHARLESTON, S.C. -- The Samford University baseball team will continue play in its late-season, five-game road swing Friday at 5 p.m. (CDT) as the Bulldogs begin a critical three-game Southern Conference series versus The Citadel in a weekend set to be played at Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Park.
 
Samford (27-22, 8-10 SoCon) heads into the matchup with some positive momentum after closing out its season sweep of crosstown-rival UAB on Tuesday, 3-1. In the victory, the Bulldogs' pitching staff stymied the Blazers, only allowing one unearned run on three total hits in the contest.
 
Samford boasts an impressive 9-2 record against in-state opponents this season.
 
Tuesday's win helped the Bulldogs ease some of their pain after getting swept at home by ETSU over the weekend. Samford's three-game losing streak proved to be its longest slide of the season and its first sweep suffered in SoCon play since April 12-14, 2013, on the road against Western Carolina.
 

Offensively, the Bulldogs' Austin Edens is leading the team with a .342 batting average, while first baseman Alex Lee follows closely at .340. Additionally, Samford's Heath Quinn boasts a .332 average at the plate as T.J. Dixon sits at .315 on the year.
 
SAMFORD'S WEEKEND PITCHING ROTATION
Friday - - - #2 RHP Parker Curry (5-2, 3.26 ERA - - - Senior, Pelham, Ala.)
Saturday - - - #14 RHP Mikhail Cazenave (3-1, 6.83 ERA - - - Junior, Rainbow City, Ala.)
Sunday - - - #37 RHP Stephen Jones (3-2, 3.50 ERA - - - Freshman, Tallahassee, Fla.)
 
SCOUTING THE COMPETITION
The Citadel (16-33, 6-12 SoCon) enters its weekend home series against Samford with hopes of bouncing back from a midweek loss to Winthrop on Wednesday, 7-1. The Citadel defeated second-place Mercer on Sunday, 9-8, but came up short in the road SoCon series two games to one.
 
Since March 30, The Citadel owns a 4-20 record. When playing at home this season, the Bulldogs have compiled a 12-16 mark, as compared to a lackluster 4-17 record when competing away from Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Park.
 
The Citadel's top hitter this year is sophomore center fielder Clay Martin. Martin has tallied a .278 batting average this season and holds a share of the team's home run lead with four. Philip Watcher and Mike Deese follow with batting averages of .262 and .250, respectively.
 

BULLDOGS' RECORD VERSUS THE CITADEL - - THE DUNN ERA
Since Head Coach Casey Dunn took the reins to the Bulldogs' baseball program in 2004, Samford has compiled a 12-9 record against The Citadel.
 
Last season, the teams played a three-game SoCon series in Birmingham, Alabama, and The Citadel took the set by a count of 2-1. Samford dropped the first two games by scores of 6-4 and 13-6, before taking the third outing, 4-3, at Joe Lee Griffin Field.
 
In 2014, the last time that the Bulldogs squared off against The Citadel on the road in Charleston, Samford took two out of three games. The Bulldogs won the first matchup, 5-3, but then The Citadel bounced back to even the series at 1-1 with a 4-2 victory. In the rubber game of the weekend, Samford cruised to an 8-3 victory held at Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Park.
 
BULLDOGS' SOPHOMORE EDENS ALREADY PUTTING UP CAREER NUMBERS
In less than two full seasons at Samford, the Bulldogs' Edens has already compiled 32 career home runs, 105 RBI and 86 runs scored. Samford's slugger also owns a phenomenal .350 career batting average, 266 total bases, 142 hits and a .655 slugging percentage.
 
Last season, Edens powered 16 home runs as a true freshman in 55 games. Already this year, the Bulldogs' first-team preseason all-American has equaled his season-high mark of 16 home runs, while adding 51 RBI.
 
SAMFORD BOASTS TWO OF NATION'S TOP HOME RUN HITTERS
Heading into this weekend's key SoCon series at The Citadel, Samford's Quinn and Edens are both ranked as two of the top home run hitters in the nation. Quinn, the Bulldogs' junior right fielder from Birmingham, Alabama, is currently ranked second in the nation with 17 home runs this season, while Edens is tied for fifth place with 16.
 

Edens, Samford's talented sophomore designated hitter from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has been on fire as of late. Since April 15, Edens has blasted eight home runs and is hitting .406 with 22 RBI, 17 runs scored and a phenomenal .844 slugging percentage.
 
The Bulldogs' Quinn and Edens have combined to hit 33 home runs this season, while driving in a total of 111 runs and accumulating 240 total bases.
 
PLENTY OF EXPERIENCE
Samford returned all nine position starters and two starting pitchers from last year and tallied a league-high seven players on the preseason all-conference teams.
 
The Bulldogs, who have played in four of the last five SoCon Tournament title games, placed a league-high seven players on the two preseason squads, including a SoCon-best four on the first team.
 
Samford paced the conference in preseason picks for the second straight year and were the coaches' preseason pick to win the league.
 
SAMFORD'S CURRY NAMED SOCON PITCHER OF THE WEEK
Samford right-hander Parker Curry was named the SoCon Pitcher of the Week on April 11 for his outstanding performance in games held April 4-10. The selection was made by the league office. Curry turned in an outstanding outing on April 10 against Wofford, hurling seven innings and allowing just two hits and two walks as the Bulldogs picked up their first shutout of the season, 6-0.
 
Curry struck out a season-high 11 batters in moving to 3-1 on the season. The senior from Pelham, Alabama, threw 120 pitches and allowed just a single in the fourth and another in the seventh after issuing two free passes in the first inning. Curry struck out at least two batters each inning from the second through fifth, getting the side in the fourth.
 

SAMFORD AMONG THE NATION'S ELITE
Samford entered the 2016 campaign as one of only three teams in the nation to boast three National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) Preseason All-Americans. The Bulldogs returned the efforts of Edens, Quinn and Hunter Swilling this season, joining only Louisville and Florida as the other two programs in the country with three Preseason All-America members.
 
SECOND-INNING STRETCH
So far this season, Samford is outscoring its opponents by a total of 44-22 in the second inning. Additionally, the Bulldogs are also outscoring the opposition, 40-29, in the third inning for a combined total of 84-51 in the second and third frames.
 
HEATH QUINN - - THE CONSTANT STARTER
The Bulldogs' Quinn has started in all 166 games of his collegiate career. Just a junior, Samford's Preseason All-American immediately earned a spot in the team's starting lineup as a true freshman in 2014 and has been a staple in the starting nine ever since.
 
Quinn boasts top-flight totals with 17 home runs, 60 RBI and 128 total bases this season. In his three-year tenure at Samford, Quinn owns a .330 career batting average, 40 home runs, 164 RBI and 157 runs scored.
 
IT'S TIME TO PULL AWAY
In the sixth, seventh and eighth innings this season, Samford is outscoring its opponents by a jaw-dropping total of 130-79. So far this year, the Bulldogs have already scored a total of 354 runs, while well over a third of those runs were tallied in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings.
 
More specifically, Samford is outscoring the opposition, 50-26, in the sixth stanza, 41-26 in the seventh and 39-27 in the eighth inning.
 
WHAT'S COMING UP NEXT?
Following this weekend's three-game SoCon series at The Citadel, the Samford University baseball team will next be in action Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. (CDT) as the Bulldogs play their final midweek non-conference contest of the season on the road against the Alabama Crimson Tide. Next week's game at Alabama will be held at the Crimson Tide's brand-new Sewell-Thomas Stadium.
 
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.

Game 1 -- Friday, 5 p.m. (CDT):  Video  |  Radio  |  Live Stats
Game 2 -- Saturday, 1 p.m. (CDT):  Video  |  Radio  |  Live Stats
Game 3 -- Sunday, Noon (CDT):  Video  |  Radio  |  Live Stats

Samford Game Notes  |  Tickets