BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The Samford University baseball team earned a 6-4 win over the Mercer Bears in the first game of a three-game series Thursday afternoon at Joe Lee Griffin Field.
 
With the win, Samford improves to 25-26 overall and 11-8 in Southern Conference play, moving the Bulldogs into a second-place tie with Mercer in the league standings. The Bears fall to 38-15 overall and 11-8 in league action.
 
Jacob Cravey (4-3) pitched 6.2 innings, giving up three runs on seven hits and striking out four batters to earn the win for Samford. Alex Goff tossed the final 2.1 innings, allowing just one run to pick up his third save of the season.
 
"Great job by Cravey," Samford head coach Tony David said. "Jacob's been incredible for us all year except for Western when he was sick all week. You know what you're going to get out there with him. That's a great offensive lineup, and to do what he did was just a great job by him. And then a really good job by Goff, coming in in a tight situation with two guys on, getting the next guy out and then finishing it for us so we have Hobbs at full strength tomorrow."
 
Colton Ledbetter led Samford at the plate, going 2-for-4 with a home run, a double and four RBI. The home run was his team-leading 14^th of the season. Will David went 2-for-4 with an RBI for the Bulldogs as well.
 
"These are big games and big situations that mean a lot and you need your guys to be your guys and he (Ledbetter) is certainly our guy," David said. "He got two enormous hits. The hit in the bottom of the eighth was big before they hit the solo home run, but you need your guys to get big hits in those situations and he's been doing it for a long time for us."
 
Mercer was led by Jozsef Rohrbacher, going 3-for-4 with a home run and one RBI. Bill Knight went 2-for-5 with a double and an RBI for the Bears. Ryan Lobus (5-5) pitched 3.2 innings, allowing four runs on six hits to take the loss on the mound for Mercer.
 
Samford got on the board first with a run in the bottom of the first inning. Stephen Klein singled to center field to drive in Garrett Howe for a 1-0 Samford lead.
 
Mercer answered with two runs in the top of the third inning to take a 2-1 lead. Antonio Brown and Knight drove in a run each as the Bears took a one-run lead.
 
The Bulldogs tied the game with a run in the bottom of the third inning. David singled through the left side of the infield to drive in Towns King to knot the score at 2-2.
 
Samford took the lead again with a pair of runs in the bottom of the fourth inning. Ledbetter homered to right-center field with Garrett Staton on base for a 4-2 Samford advantage.
 
Mercer cut the lead to 4-3 with a run in the top of the seventh inning. Treyson Hughes singled through the left side of the infield to drive in Rohrbacher to bring the Bears to within one run.
 
Samford added two runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to push the lead to 6-3. Ledbetter doubled to left-center field to drive in King and Blake Bortak for a three-run Samford advantage. Mercer's Rohrbacher homered to left field in the top of the ninth inning to make the final score 6-4.
 
Samford and Mercer will continue their series with a game Friday afternoon. The game is set for a 2 p.m. start from Joe Lee Griffin Field. Admission to the game is FREE.


 


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