March 21, 2008

Game One Box Score
Game Two Box Score

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The Samford baseball team opened Ohio Valley Conference play by sweeping a doubleheader from Tennessee-Martin Friday afternoon at Joe Lee Griffin Field. Samford won game one, 5-3, and the Bulldogs took game two by a score of 14-1.

"It was big for us to start off well in conference play," Samford head coach Casey Dunn said. "We've had a good pre-conference season, but we needed to get off to a good start in conference play. Last season, we weren't able to do that, so it was good for us to start well today."

In game one, Wayne Miller was 3-for-5 with two RBI, and Michael Marseco was 3-for-4 with an RBI. Bill Whitehead was 2-for-4 at the plate in game one. John Morgan hit a solo home run in a 1-for-4 performance. Jonathan Stephens pitched 8.0 strong innings, giving up two runs on four hits to earn the win on the mound.

For UT Martin in game one, Wes Patterson hit a three-run home run in a 1-for-3 performance at the plate. Shayne Martin was 2-for-3 at the plate for the Skyhawks. Eric Walker pitched 7.0 innings, giving up three runs on seven hits to take the loss.

Samford led, 1-0, after the first six innings, but the Bulldogs plated two runs in the seventh and two more in the eighth to push their lead to 5-0. Marseco and Michael Rutledge drove in a run each in the seventh inning. Morgan hit his solo home run for the first run in the eighth inning. Miller later singled to center field to drive in Michael Johnson for a five-run Samford lead.

UTM's Patterson hit his three-run homer to account for all of the Skyhawks' runs in the top of the ninth inning to make the final score 5-3.

In the second game, Marcus Rodriguez hit a grand slam and drove in five runs, going 2-for-2 at the plate. Marseco was 3-for-4 with two RBI for the Bulldogs. Alex Godshall and Rutledge had two hits each for Samford. David Knapp pitched 4.0 innings, giving up no runs on two hits and striking out six batters to earn the win.

For UT Martin, Miles Hartsfield was 2-for-3 at the plate. Ryan Lantz pitched 2.1 innings, giving up four runs on seven hits to take the loss.

After Samford plated three runs in the first inning and one in the third, the Bulldogs broke the game open with six runs in the fourth inning to take a 10-0 lead. The majority of the damage in the fourth was done when Rodriguez hit his grand slam with Morgan, Rutledge and Marseco on base.

The Bulldogs added four more runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to make the score 14-0. Rutledge, Whitehead, P.J. Fandetti and Drew Reagan drove in a run each for the Bulldogs in the fifth. The Skyhawks plated a run in the top of the sixth inning to make the final score 14-1.

With the wins, Samford improves to 11-7 overall and 2-0 in OVC play. UT Martin falls to 1-15 overall and 0-2 in league play.

The teams will conclude their three-game series with a single game Saturday at 1 p.m. Fans can follow the game live on the internet via GameTracker at the link below.

Live Stats For Game 3