BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - UNC Greensboro held a 6-4 lead going into the bottom of the ninth, but Samford rallied for three runs in the inning, including a walk-off single by Trey Hayes, as the Spartans fell to the Bulldogs, 7-6, on Saturday afternoon at J.L. Griffin Field.
With UNCG holding on to a two-run lead in the ninth, Blake Hassebrock induced the first batter to fly out. Stephen Ballard then walked before moving to second on a single by Mason Meredith. A walk to David Schulze loaded the bases and then a wild pitch scored Ballard and moved Meredith and Schulze to second and third.
A groundout to first base by Bo Smith scored Meredith and tied the game at six with two outs. That's when Hayes stepped to the plate and singled to right field just beyond the diving effort of Drew Gehringer to score Schulze and give Samford the victory.
Lex Rutledge moved to 4-0 on the season for the Bulldogs (19-11, 10-1 Southern Conference) after allowing one unearned run on two hits in the final 1 1/3 innings. Hassebrock picked up the loss after he went for his first career complete game by pitching 8 2/3 innings and allowed seven runs on eight hits.
The Bulldogs were led by Meredith who went 3-4 with two runs scored, while Wayne Miller and Schulze each added two-run home runs.
Ed Jayjack paced the Spartans as he went 2-4 with two RBI and three runs scored. Lloyd Enzor also added a 2-5 effort with two RBI and Harry Slade had a pair of hits as well.
After neither team was able to score in the first three innings, UNCG finally broke through in the fourth to take a 1-0 lead. Chris Barker led off the inning with a four-pitch walk before stealing second. He was able to move to third on a passed ball and scored on a sacrifice fly by Corey Overholtzer.
UNCG added to that lead in the top of the sixth as Slade led off the inning with a single up the middle. After a sacrifice bunt and a groundout, Jayjack hit a home run that was just inside the right field foul pole to put the Spartans ahead, 3-0.
The Bulldogs responded though in the bottom half of the sixth as Meredith led off the inning with an infield single. Schulze followed with a home run over the wall in right field to make it a 3-2 game.
UNCG got one of those runs back though in the top of the seventh as Eric Brindle and Zach Leach hit back-to-back one-out singles to put runners on the corners. Slade walked to load the bases and Barker was hit by a pitch two pitches later to walk in Brindle from third.
Samford struck again though with the long ball in the bottom of the seventh to tie the game at four. Brad Moss led off with a single to left field and the next batter, Miller, stepped up and hit a two-run home run just over the wall in left center to make it 4-4.
The Spartans didn't take long to retake the lead though as UNCG added one more in the top of the eighth to take a 5-4 lead. Jayjack led off the inning with a walk and then moved over to second on a sacrifice bunt. Enzor then doubled to the gap in right center to score Jayjack from second.
The Spartans would go on to load the bases later in the inning, but left all three runners stranded for the second-straight inning.
Jayjack scored another run in the ninth inning as he hit a two-out double to right center. After Overholtzer reached on an error, Enzor hit a single to right field to score Jayjack and give UNCG a 6-4 lead.
The two sides will wrap up the series on Sunday with a 1 p.m. CDT contest.
AGATE
Samford 7, UNC Greensboro 6
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UNC Greensboro...... 000 102 111 - 6 11 1 (14-17, 2-11)
Samford............. 000 002 203 - 7 8 3 (19-11, 10-1)
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Pitchers: UNC Greensboro - Blake Hassebrock and Zach Leach. Samford - Kyle Putkonen; Mark Lewallyn(7); Michael Gunter(8); Lex Rutledge(8) and Brad Moss.
Win-Lex Rutledge(4-0) Loss-Blake Hassebrock(0-3) T-2:40 A-511
HR UNCG - Ed Jayjack.
HR SAM - Wayne Miller; David Schulze.
Weather: 70 and sunny
- UNCG -
