BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The Samford baseball team dropped a 12-2 decision in eight innings to Mercer in the final game of a three-game series Saturday afternoon at Joe Lee Griffin Field.
 
With the loss, Samford falls to 26-27 overall and 12-9 in Southern Conference play, tying the Bulldogs with Mercer for second in the league standings. Mercer improves to 39-16 overall and 12-9 in league play. Samford will be either the second or third seed for next week's SoCon Tournament, depending on the outcome of tonight's UNCG at Western Carolina game. The league will release the official pairings for the tournament later tonight.
 
"Finishing second in the regular season this year has been an incredible job by our guys, given who left after last season," David said. "We are excited about next week."
 
Samford was led by Will David, going 2-for-4 with an RBI. Will Lynch (0-5) took the loss on the mound for Samford, pitching 5.0 innings, allowing four runs on seven hits.
 
"Lynch gave us a chance today and threw well," Samford head coach Tony David said. "Our defense has carried us all season and we had a couple of plays we needed to make that we didn't. We just have to find a way to score more on Sundays in the SoCon. It was a tough last couple of innings on another good weekend against a good team."
 
For Mercer, Jozsef Rohrbacher and Angelo DiSpigna had two hits and three RBI each. Bill Knight homered and drove in two runs for the Bears. Josh Harlow (7-2) tossed 5.1 innings, giving up two runs on five hits to earn the win for the Bears.
 
Mercer took the early lead with two runs in the top of the third inning. Knight hit a two-run home run to center field to give the Bears a 2-0 lead.
 
The Bears added two more runs in the top of the fourth inning to push their lead to 4-0. DiSpigna doubled to center field to drive in William Mapes for the first run of the inning. Rohrbacher later singled down the right field line to drive in DiSpigna for a four-run Bear lead.
 
Samford put its first run on the scoreboard in the bottom of the fourth inning. David singled up the middle to drive in Colton Ledbetter to cut the Mercer lead to 4-1.
 
The Bulldogs cut further into the lead with a run in the bottom of the fifth inning. Garrett Staton doubled down the left-field line to drive in Blake Bortak to make the score 4-2.
 
Mercer broke the game open with seven runs in the top of the seventh inning. Trevor Hughes and Mapes drove in a run each, while DiSpigna and Rohrbacher drove in two runs each and Bill Knight scored on an error for an 11-2 Mercer advantage.
 
The Bears added one final run in the top of the eighth inning. Mapes walked with the bases loaded to drive in Hughes to make the final scorer 12-2.
 
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