BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The Samford baseball team handed Mercer its first shutout of the season in a 5-0 win in the final game of a three-game Southern Conference series Sunday afternoon at Joe Lee Griffin Field.
With the win, Samford improved its season record to 24-21 overall and 9-6 in Southern Conference play. Mercer fell to 35-13 overall and 9-6 in league games.
Noah Berry (5-1) pitched 5.1 innings, giving up just four hits to earn the win on the mound for Samford.
John Malone,
Austin Tommasini and
Zak Spurrier closed out the rest of the game for Samford.
"We've been blessed with a lot of great pitchers over the years and a lot of really good performances, but, situationally, against one of the best offenses in the country, and the fact that we just had to have it today, this was huge," Samford head coach Tony David said. "What Berry did out there for five-plus inning, kept them off balance. He worked around a couple of walks but just got a lot of soft contact. We were fortunate a couple of times when they did hit it hard, it was right at us. John was great again and Tommasini there and then Spurrier on the back end was able to come in and fill it up."
Samford was led at the plate by
Trey Higgins, going 2-for-4 with a double, a home run and one RBI.
Eddie Marshall also homered, driving in two runs in a 1-for-2 performance.
Parker McDonald went 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI, while
Jake Souders went 2-for-4 for the Bulldogs.
For Mercer, Jeb Johnson (2-3) took the loss on the mound, tossing 4.0 innings, giving up five runs on eight hits. Michael Graziano, Titan Kamaka, Braydon Kersey, Drew Johnson, Ethan Buffone and Kaleb Huffman had one hit each for the Bears.
Samford jumped out to an early lead, plating two runs in the bottom of the second inning. Higgins homered to left field for the first run of the game. McDonald later doubled to left field to drive in
Luke Boykin for a 2-0 Samford lead.
The Bulldogs added three runs in the fourth inning. Boykin singled up the middle to drive in Higgins to make the score 3-0. Marshall later hit a two-run home run to left-center field to push the lead to 5-0.
Next up, Samford will travel to Florence, Ala., to take on North Alabama on Tuesday, May 5. The game is set for a 4 p.m. start and can be seen live on ESPN+.
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