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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- The Samford University baseball team opened its Senior Day Weekend in impressive fashion Thursday as the Bulldogs received outstanding pitching performances from seniors Cody Shelton, Josh Rich and Jake Greer en route to a critical 9-2 series-opening win against the VMI Keydets.
 
The Southern Conference series is being held this week at Joe Lee Griffin Field. Game two is slated to begin at 4 p.m. (CT) on Friday.
 
Samford (31-23, 15-7 SoCon) pounded out 11 hits against VMI (25-24, 11-11 SoCon) on Thursday, including demonstrative home runs from sophomores Taylor Garris and Anthony Mulrine. Both Garris and Mulrine finished 1-for-3 at the dish.
 
The Bulldogs touched up VMI's All-SoCon ace Josh Winder (5-5) for eight runs on nine hits. Samford scored three runs in the third inning, two more in the fifth and then broke out for three additional scores in the sixth stanza. The Bulldogs also added a run in the bottom of the seventh to round out their scoring on the evening.
 
Samford leadoff hitter Branden Fryman set the tone Thursday with a 2-for-4 performance at the plate. The Bulldogs' sophomore shortstop also scored a pair of runs and tallied two RBI.
 
Senior Austin Edens and junior Connor Burns both registered 2-for-4 outings with a run and an RBI, while Brooks Carlson, Sam Teague and Ryan Crockett all turned in key base hits.
 
Starring on the mound Thursday were Samford seniors Shelton, Rich (4-5) and Greer.
 
Shelton started the game and only allowed one run on five hits, while Rich earned the victory from the bullpen by giving up just one run on three hits in 3.2 innings of action. He proved to be the pitcher of record when the fifth frame was completed.
 
Greer entered with one out in the top of the ninth and closed out the victory for the Bulldogs. He struck out one of the two men he faced in the win.
 
With Thursday's victory, Samford moved just one win away from clinching the No. 2 seed in next week's SoCon Tournament, which will be held at Fluor Field in downtown Greenville, South Carolina.
 
Samford and VMI will meet in the second game of this weekend's SoCon series Friday at 4 p.m. (CT) right here at Joe Lee Griffin Field.
 
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