Samford Defeats Troy 15-4 to Split Season Series

Tuesday, May 1

Birmingham, Ala.

6:00 p.m.

Troy University

Samford

Photo by: Lisa Ray

Samford Defeats Troy 15-4 to Split Season Series

5/1/2012 9:22:00 PM | Baseball

By: Adam Prendergast

BOX SCORE

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Samford used a five-run fourth inning and a seven-run eighth inning to defeat Troy 15-4 Tuesday night at Joe Lee Griffin Field and work a split in the home-and-home season series.

Cass Abercrombie cruised through the first three innings before the Bulldogs chased the Trojan starter with one out in the fourth. Saxon Butler and Brandon Miller doubled around a walk to Phillip Ervin to get the inning rolling with one out. C.K. Irby followed with a three-run homer over the wall in left-center field to give Samford a 4-0 lead.

Following a walk and a pitching change to bring A.J. Howard in the game, the Bulldogs extended their lead to 5-0 with an RBI single to right by Zeth Stone. The Trojans had been out-hitting the Bulldogs 5-1 entering the decisive bottom of the fourth. Samford extended its lead to 6-0 with a run in the sixth.

The Trojans pushed four runs across the plate in the seventh to close the gap to 6-4. Jakob Nixon got the inning rolling with a one-out triple and Tyler Vaughn drew a walk to put runners on the corners. Logan Pierce then grounded to second to score Nixon. Stone threw the ball away at second trying to force out Vaughn for Samford's third error of the night.

Boone Shear followed with a single back up the middle to score Vaughn. After the second out of the inning, Tyler Hannah won a 10-pitch battle with Joseph Burns with a two-run double down the line in left field to cap the scoring for Troy in the frame.

Nixon and Vaughn had two hits each at the top of the Troy batting order, while Shear added a pair from the clean-up spot. The Trojans finished with 10 hits on the night as seven of the nine starters had a hit in the game.

Ervin, Miller and Irby led off the home half of the seventh with consecutive singles to give the Bulldogs a 7-4 lead. Against a drawn in infield, Tommy Corbin chopped out to short which allowed a second run to score. William Teal started the eighth for Troy and issued back-to-back walks before allowing a three-run homer to Butler to give Samford an 11-4 lead. The Bulldogs would score four more runs in the inning.

Irby was 4-for-5 with five RBIs to lead a 16-hit attack by the Bulldogs. Stone and Miller both had three hits, while Butler and Ervin had two hits each.

The Trojans had two base runners on in each of the first three innings, but could not find a way to push a run across against Samford starter Andres Gracia. Troy's best opportunity came in the third following back-to-back singles to lead off the frame by Vaughn and Pierce. However, a foul out and line drive double play quickly ended the threat.

Gracia (2-0) picked up the win for Samford after tossing five scoreless innings. The Bulldog freshman struck out two, scattered five hits and did not walk a batter. Abercrombie (1-3) was tagged with the loss for Troy after he allowed five runs on four hits in 3.1 innings; he walked three and struck out two.

Troy returns to Sun Belt Conference action this weekend with a three-game series at Louisiana-Lafayette. The Trojans are coming off a series victory over league-leading Florida Atlantic and enter the weekend just one game out of sixth place and three games out of fourth.