Baseball Falls To Jacksonville State, 8-7, In OVC Finals

May 27, 2006

PADUCAH, Ky. - Jacksonville State scored four runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to defeat the Samford baseball team, 8-7, Saturday afternoon for the Ohio Valley Conference championship at Brooks Stadium.

"This is just one of those losses that hurts," Samford head coach Casey Dunn said. "They fought and played hard. I thought we had two gutty performances on the mound today out of Parker (Gargis) and Joseph (Edens). Jacksonville State just did a great job."

With Samford leading, 7-4, in the bottom of the ninth inning, Jacksonville State plated four runs to take the one-run win. Jake Ball doubled to drive in Bert Smith and Allen Rose to make the score 7-6. Clay Whittemore then doubled to drive in Jake Ball and Garrett Bass for the 8-7 JSU win.

For Samford (34-25) at the plate, Michael Marseco, Bear Burnett and Trey Moody collected three hits each. Joseph Edens pitched the final 2.1 innings, giving up four earned runs on five hits to take the loss. Parker Gargis started the game on the mound for Samford, pitching 6.0 strong innings, giving up just one earned run on four hits.

Jacksonville State (35-23) was led by Whittemore, going 3-for-5 with two RBI. Lee Drinkard pitched the final 2.0 innings, giving up just one hit to pick up the win on the mound.

Samford jumped on top first with a run in the top of the first inning. Garrett Rice hit a sacrifice fly to drive in Marseco for a 1-0 Samford lead.

The Bulldogs put three more runs on the board in the second inning to push their lead to 4-0. Marseco singled to drive in Bill Whitehead, and Moody scored on a JSU error for a 3-0 Samford lead. Marseco then scored when John Morgan reached base on another Gamecock error.

Jacksonville State came back with three runs in the bottom of the second inning to cut the Samford lead to 4-3. Richard Turner singled up the middle to drive in Eric Beck for JSU's first run of the game. Whittemore then scored on a Samford error to make the score 4-2. JSU plated the final run of the inning when Bret Pettus grounded out to drive in Turner.

Samford added a run in the top of the fifth to make the score 5-3. Burnett singled down the right-field line to drive in Louis Rojas for a two-run Samford lead. The Bulldogs added two more runs in the top of the seventh inning when Rojas hit a home run to right-center field with Garrett Rice on base to make the score 7-3.

Jacksonville State added a run in the bottom of the seventh inning to cut the Samford lead to 7-4. Eric Beck singled to drive in Bert Smith for the run.

Samford placed three players on the All-Tournament team. Gargis, Rojas and Burnett were all named to the All-Tournament team for the Bulldogs.