GREENVILLE, S.C. – The third-seeded Samford baseball team was eliminated from the Southern Conference Tournament with an 8-2 setback to the fourth-seeded UNC Greensboro Spartans in the semifinal round Saturday evening at Fluor Field.
 
With the loss, Samford ends its season with a record of 28-29. UNCG improves to 32-28 on the year, and the Spartans advance to Sunday's championship round where they will take on top-seeded Wofford.
 
The season was the first as head coach for Tony David. Despite being picked sixth in the preseason polls, the Bulldogs finished second in the Southern Conference regular season. That finish, coupled with advancing to the semifinal round of the SoCon Tournament, David said, were both things he was extremely proud of.
 
"In my time here, I think it's the biggest overachievement, relative to the league that we really have had," David said. "We were picked to finish sixth for a reason in people's eyes because of what all left the program and all the other stuff. I'm proud of the guys and the way they fought all season. In this event, it was important to show that the SoCon Tournament was an event we were going to continue to play well in, and we did play well."
 
Samford was led at the plate by Stephen Klein, going 2-for-5 with an RBI. Maurice Hampton Jr. went 2-for-3 for the Bulldogs. Brody Westbrooks (3-4) took the loss on the mound for Samford, tossing 4.0 innings, allowing four runs on seven hits.
 
For UNCG, Kennedy Jones went 4-for-6 with two doubles and one RBI. Zack Budzik went 2-for-5 with a double and an RBI. Price King (3-1) pitched 6.0 innings, allowing no runs on three hits to earn the win on the mound for the Spartans. Cam Noble tossed the final 3.0 innings to pick up his first save of the season.
 
"Their left-hander (King) did an amazing job today in this game," David said. "But our guys did well. Brody threw great. Jalon (Long) gave us a chance, we just have to score more. When you get this late in the tournament, it's about run production. We just didn't have a lot of good at-bats early and we had some chances late and we just didn't take advantage of them. I told the guys after the game, this is as proud as I've been of any team we've had."
 
UNCG plated two runs in the top of the first inning to take the early lead. Hogan Windish doubled to left-center field to drive in Jones for the game's first run. Windish later scored on a ground out by Mitchell Smith for a 2-0 Spartan lead.
 
In the top of the fourth inning, UNCG added another run to push its lead to 3-0. Budzik scored on a Samford error for a three-run UNCG lead.
 
The Spartans added another run in the top of the fifth inning. Smith singled to left field to drive in Pres Cavanaugh to push the UNCG lead to 4-0.
 
In the top of the sixth inning, UNCG plated two more runs to push its lead to 6-0. Bradley Bott scored the first run of the inning on an error. Greg Hardison later singled through the right side of the infield to drive in Jones for a six-run Spartan lead.
 
Budzik doubled down the left-field line to drive in G.C. Jarman to make the score 7-0 in the top of the seventh inning. Later in the inning, Jones singled up the middle to drive in Budzik for an 8-0 UNCG lead.
 
The Bulldogs got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the eighth inning. Klein scored on a passed ball to cut the UNCG lead to 8-1.
 
Samford added one final run in the bottom of the ninth inning. Klein singled to right-center field to drive in Colton Ledbetter to make the final score 8-2.


 
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