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GREENVILLE, S.C. -- The Samford University baseball team kept its 2016 Southern Conference Championship title hopes alive in dramatic fashion Friday as the Bulldogs overcame a seven-run, seventh-inning deficit to rally past the ETSU Bucs in a tremendous, 12-11, come-from-behind victory held at Fluor Field.
 
"I'm excited to see our guys battle back for the win and to respond after an eight-run inning," said Samford head coach Casey Dunn. "I thought it was big that we immediately came out and answered their inning with four runs of our own, and that really gave our guys the confidence that they could come back and win the game."
 
With the win, Samford (34-25) knocked ETSU (27-30) out of the SoCon Championship and advanced to Saturday's elimination-game matchup, where it will face either No. 3 UNCG or No. 4 Furman. UNCG and Furman were also playing in an elimination-game contest Friday and the result was still to be determined at press time.
 
Samford senior Alex Lee hit a walk-off RBI single and a three-run home run Friday, while junior Heath Quinn had three hits and four RBI in the last four innings of play as No. 6 seed Samford stunned No. 5 seed ETSU in 10 innings, 12-11.
 
With one out in the bottom of the 10^th inning, Samford's Quinn stood on second base following a laser-like double off the faux Green Monster in left field. Lee then strolled to the plate and posted the game-winning single as he rifled a shot through the left side of the infield.
 
Quinn never hesitated rounding third base for the game-winning run, and the play was made easy as left-fielder Aaron Maher overran the ball to secure Samford's victory.
 
The Bulldogs, who have reached the SoCon title game four times in the last five years, powered 17 hits Friday and received a gutsy pitching performance from true freshman starting pitcher Stephen Jones. Jones hurled 6.1 innings on the mound Friday and only allowed four earned runs on three hits.
 
After a shaky first frame in which ETSU notched three runs, Jones settled in tallied five straight clean innings before being replaced in the top of the seventh.
 
ETSU put up eight runs in the top of the seventh inning to seemingly put the game away, but Samford scored the final eight runs of the contest to stun the higher-seeded Bucs, who swept the Bulldogs during the regular season.
 
"After their big inning, I think our guys started to get into it a little bit," said Dunn. "We had some guys show some frustration in a positive way and it kind of lit a fire under our team. When Hunter (Swilling) hit the first ball out and Heath followed it up, the momentum of the game definitely swung to our favor and we were able to take advantage of it."
 
The rally got going with a four-run seventh for the Bulldogs, who trailed 11-4 after the Bucs' offensive explosion in the top half. After a pair of singles and a fielder's choice, Hunter Swilling hit a three-run home run to make it 11-7. Quinn, who was 0-for-2 with a walk and a pair of strikeouts to that point, followed with a 421-foot home run to left as the Bulldogs inched closer.
 
Quinn's blast landed well on top of the building across the street behind the Green Monster, nearly as far as former Bulldog-great Brandon Miller's epic blast during Samford's 2012 SoCon championship run.
 
"I normally always try to be aggressive at the plate," Quinn said. "I know pitchers' try to get ahead in the count, so I was just trying to be aggressive and hit something hard."
 
Quinn played the hero again in the following inning, just missing a go-ahead grand slam with a bases-clearing double off the wall in right-center to tie the contest at 11. Neither team could scratch across a run in the ninth, setting the stage for Lee's dramatics in the 10th.
 
Quinn was again the catalyst, as he smacked a one-out double off the Green Monster in left to get the deciding rally going. Designated hitter Austin Edens was intentionally walked to bring up Lee, and the senior first baseman made ETSU pay with his fourth hit of the day, a single to left-center that allowed Quinn to race home with the winning run.
 
The rally capped an improbable comeback after ETSU's big seventh inning. Trailing 4-3 entering the frame, the Bucs piled up seven hits in the seventh, including RBI singles from Trey York, Hagen Owenby and Aaron Maher, a two-run single from Robby McCabe and a two-run homer from Andrew Lasure.
 
The 12-11 final score seemed unlikely prior to that point, as Samford's Jones and ETSU starter Griffin Krieg both settled in after give up three runs in the first. ETSU took advantage of three walks, a hit and an error to jump out to a 3-0 lead, but Samford answered with Lee's three-run, two-out shot. The Bulldogs pulled ahead in the fourth when Lee doubled and eventually scored on a pair of passed balls.
 
"We knew that we had nine outs to make up the runs and that we really just needed to start chipping away at their lead," said Lee. "We were going to have to win the at-bats one-by-one and we needed to get some runs their quickly in the bottom of the seventh."
 
Lee finished 4-for-5 with four RBIs, while Quinn and Swilling had three hits each. Quinn finished with two doubles and his 20th home run of the season, extending his school record for single-season RBI with four to move to 76 on the season. Swilling had three RBI and three runs scored.
 
"I struggled a bit in the first two games and I think it was because of lack of aggression," Lee said. "That's why coming into today I wanted to make sure that I was very aggressive at the plate. After the home run in the first inning, I really gained some good confidence and just went from there."
 
Owenby, Lasure and Kevin Phillips had two hits each to lead ETSU.
 
Samford's Wyatt Burns (2-2) turned in an outstanding performance Friday and picked up the win after working 3 2/3 innings, allowing three runs on four hits. Ryan Simpler (0-6) took the loss, allowing two runs on 2 1/3 innings.
 
The winner of Saturday's game between Samford and either Furman or UNCG will advance to a second game on the night where they will face the loser of Saturday's morning contest featuring top-seed Mercer and No. 2 Western Carolina.
 
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