MACON, Ga. – The Samford baseball team secured the outright Southern Conference regular season championship with a 14-8 win at Mercer in the final game of the 2023 regular season Saturday afternoon at OrthoGeorgia Park.
 
With the win, Samford earns the sweep of the series, the Bulldogs' first series win at Mercer since 2002. Samford improves to 32-22 overall and 15-6 in SoCon play. The Bulldogs, who will be the No. 1 seed for next week's SoCon Tournament, captured their second SoCon regular season title, to go along with three SoCon Tournament championships. Mercer, who will be the No. 2 seed for the SoCon Tournament, ends its regular season with a mark of 32-23 overall and 13-8 in SoCon action.
 
"This was an incredible weekend for our guys with so much on the line on the road," Samford head coach Tony David said. "When you come here you know you are going to have to put up runs and hit the ball out of their park to have success. Obviously, we did a great job of that."
 
In the game for Samford, Lucas Steele went 4-for-5 with two home runs, a double and four RBI. Jayden Davis went 2-for-4 with a home run and four RBI. Davis extended his Samford-record hitting streak to 37 games. Aaron Walton also went 2-for-4 with a homer and four RBI. John Anderson also homered for Samford, his 21^st home run of the season, which is tied for the second most in a single season in program history.
 
"This was another great day at the plate driving the ball," David said. "Having three freshmen with four RBI each and each hitting a home run is pretty special. What a class. It was also a great weekend all around, defensively."
 
Will Lynch (4-4) pitched 5.0 innings, allowing five runs on six hits to earn the win on the mound for Samford. Trey Sanders, Alex Gaeto, Heath Clevenger and Jacob Newman each saw time on the mound for the Bulldogs as well.
 
"With the No. 1 seed locked up, we wanted to make sure we got some arms on today that we will need for a potential tournament run," David said. "We were able to do everything we felt we needed to be ready for next week."
 
For Mercer, Eric Toth went 3-for-5 with a double, a home run and one RBI. Brandon Frye and Jackson Cherry also homered for the Bears. Fred Wilson (1-4) took the loss on the mound for Mercer, giving up seven runs on five hits in 1.2 innings of work.
 
Samford jumped out to a big lead early with seven runs in the top of the second inning. Steele got things started with a solo home run to lead the inning off. Josh Rodriguez later singled to left field to drive in Garrett Howe for a 2-0 Samford lead. Davis hit a three-run home run to right field to make the score 5-0. Steele drove in the final two runs with a double down the left-field line to drive in Anderson and Stephen Klein for a 7-0 Samford lead.
 
Mercer answered with two runs in the bottom of the second inning to cut the lead to 7-2. Frye hit a long fly ball to the wall in center field, and Samford center fielder Rodriguez ran into the wall attempting to make the catch, falling down and allowing Frye and Carter Sanford to score on an inside the park home run. Rodriguez had to leave the game after running into the wall.
 
"We need to get some guys patched up," David said. "Rod went into the wall pretty good early and had to leave the game, but should be fine."
 
In the top of the third inning, Davis singled to right field to drive in Andrew Bennett for an 8-2 Bulldog lead. In the top of the fourth inning, Steele homered to left-center field to make the score 9-2, and Walton later singled to drive in Howe for a 10-2 Samford lead.
 
The Bears came up with three runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to cut the Samford lead to 10-5. Treyson Hughes scored the first run of the inning on a wild pitch. Sanford later singled to right-center field to drive in Toth and Jozsef Rohrbacher to close to within five runs.
 
In the top of the sixth inning, Anderson hit a solo home run to left-center field for an 11-5 Samford lead. Mercer's Toth led the bottom of the seventh inning off with a solo home run to make the score 11-6. Samford's Walton hit a three-run homer to right field in the top of the eighth inning to push the Bulldogs' lead to 14-6. In the bottom of the ninth inning, Mercer added two final runs on a sacrifice fly by Trevor Austin and a home run by Cherry to make the final score 14-8.
 
As the No. 1 seed in the SoCon Tournament, Samford will play its first tournament game next Friday, May 26, at 8 a.m. (CT) against a yet-to-be determined opponent at Fluor Field in Greenville, S.C. The official bracket for the tournament will be released by the SoCon later tonight.
 
"We did what we needed to do in the regular season," David said. "We are all excited about going to Greenville for the SoCon Tournament."
 
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