BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The Samford Baseball Team picked up a Southern Conference series victory with a 10-4 win against The Citadel on Saturday afternoon.
With the win, Samford improves to 15-12 overall and 4-1 in SoCon play while The Citadel falls to 14-12 overall and 1-4 in league play.
John Anderson, Garrett Howe, Stephen Klein, and Garrett Staton all logged three-hit performances, with Anderson and Howe driving in a pair of runs and Klein scoring a team-high three runs on the day. Klein finished just a home run shy of the cycle in a 3-3 effort while Anderson also knocked a triple in the contest.
Aaron Walton also collected a pair of RBI while Andrew Bennett launched his fourth home run of the season.
Brody Westbrooks (2-1) struck out six batters over 5.1 innings on the way to his second win of the season. Westbrooks gave up just two runs on seven hits while walking just one.
Alex Gaeto struck out a pair of batters over 2.2 innings of relief while conceding one earned. Jake Holifield struck out two batters over a scoreless inning of relief in the ninth.
Samford cracked the scoreboard in its first at-bat of the afternoon, recording two runs on three hits in the bottom of the first. Staton led off the frame on a pop fly that dropped between first and second before being brought home on an RBI triple by Klein to left. Anderson delivered the final blow of the inning with an RBI single through the right side that plated Klein.
The Bulldogs added to their lead in the bottom of the third in the form of a sac fly from Steele to left field. A Staton hit batsman, followed by a Davis single and a Klein walk loaded up the bases for Steele's RBI opportunity.
The Citadel tallied its first run of the day on a solo home run by Travis Lott in the top of the fourth that made it a 3-1 game, but Samford responded in the bottom half of the inning on a towering blast by Bennett to make it a 4-1 contest.
The Citadel added another run in the top of the fifth on a solo shot by Anthony Badala, but Samford was once again able to answer in the bottom half on an RBI infield hit by Howe. Klein cranked a leadoff double to begin the frame and was brought to third on a 6-3 putout off the bat of Anderson before crossing home on Howe's hit.
Samford tallied five runs over the seventh and eighth innings to create separation. Walton came up with the big hit in the seventh on a two-run double which was followed by an RBI infield hit by Staton to give the Bulldogs an 8-2 lead.
After conceding a run to The Citadel in the eighth, the Bulldogs plated their final two runs of the contest in the bottom half of the frame. A one-out RBI triple from Klein and an RBI double by Howe accounted for the damage done in the inning.
The Citadel made things uneasy in the top of the ninth by loading the bases and bringing in a run on a Sawyer Reeves RBI single through the left side. Holifield eventually thwarted any late-inning heroics by getting the next two hitters to strike out and fly out to give way to the 10-4 final score.
Samford batted .395 (15-38) on the day en route to scoring double-digit runs for the fourth time in five SoCon games. The Bulldogs batted .385 (.5-13) with two outs and logged four two-out RBI.
The Bulldog pitching staff held The Citadel to just a .167 (2-12) average with runners in scoring position while stranding 9 base runners.
The third and final game of the weekend between Samford and the Citadel will be played on Sunday, April 2 at 1:00 p.m. (CST) from Joe Lee Griffin Field.
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