BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The Samford University baseball team used a dominant overall performance to earn a 9-1 win over Mercer in the first game of a three-game Southern Conference series Friday evening at Joe Lee Griffin Field.
With the win, Samford moved its season record to 30-15 overall and 11-2 in Southern Conference play. Samford has now won at least 30 games in nine of the last 10 full seasons. Mercer fell to 23-21 overall and 4-8 in league play.
Michael Ross (10-0) turned in another impressive performance to earn the win on the mound for Samford. He pitched 7.0 innings, allowing one run on six hits and striking out four batters without allowing a walk. Evan Steckmesser and Miller Riggins split the last two innings, giving up a combined one hit and not allowing a run.
“He’s just our engine,” Samford head coach Tony David said of Ross. “The reality is, we’re a better offensive team when he is out there, and I think we’re a better defensive team when he’s out there to get these series started because of the belief our guys have in him and knowing what he’s going to do for us out there and the consistency with which he does it.”
Offensively, Samford had nine extra base hits, including eight doubles and one home run. Garrett Howe went 3-for-5 with three doubles. Garrett Staton went 3-for-5 with a double, a home run and one RBI. John Anderson went 2-for-5 with a double and two RBI. Aaron Walton went 2-for-3 with two doubles and one RBI. Angelo Prieto doubled and drove in three runs in a 1-for-4 performance at the plate.
“We’ve got a lot of confidence at the plate,” David said. “We scored a lot of runs Wednesday night, so we came in feeling good confident at the plate. Several of those were just hustle doubles too. We were really aggressive on the bases and it paid off for us. Our guys drove the ball well and got in the gaps, but we did a really good job of turning some singles into doubles.”
For Mercer, Ty Dalley drove in the Bears’ lone run. Colton Cosper (4-2) pitched 5.0 innings, giving up six runs on nine hits to take the loss on the mound for the Bears.
Staton got things started as he led the bottom of the first inning off with a solo home run for a 1-0 Samford lead. Later in the inning, Prieto hit a bases-clearing three-run double down the left-field line to make the score 4-0. Josh Rodriguez delivered an RBI single later in the first inning to push the Samford lead to 5-0.
At the bottom of the third inning, Samford plated another run to make the score 6-0. Rodriguez hit a sacrifice fly to center field to drive in Walton for a six-run Bulldog lead. Mercer scored his lone run at the top of the sixth inning when Dalley hit a sacrifice fly to left field to drive in Noah Best to cut the lead to 6-1.
Samford plated three final runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to push the lead to 9-1. Anderson doubled to right-center field to drive in the first two runs of the inning. Anderson later scored on a ground out by Walton for the game’s final run.
The teams will continue the series with a game Saturday at 1 pm at Joe Lee Griffin Field. The game can be seen live on ESPN+, and fans can also follow the game online via live stats. For links to follow all of Samford’s games this season, click on the following link: BASEBALL SCHEDULE.
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