GREENSBORO, N.C.- The UNC Greensboro (UNCG) baseball team completed the series win over the Samford Bulldogs, 11-1, in seven innings on Sunday afternoon.
This is the first time since the 2018 season that UNCG has won a series against Samford. In 2018, the Spartans swept the Bulldogs in UNCG Baseball Stadium.
Junior RHP
Austin Koehn, who has missed the last two months due to injury, made his first start since February 22.
SPARTANS INTERVIEWING SPARTANS
Bradley Bott: Austin came back today and threw excellently. Tell me, what was going through your head on the mound?"
Koehn: "Not much. Just glad to be back on the mound. I was trying to keep my team in it and roll on the mound."
Koehn pitched 2.1 innings and faced eight batters. He was hitless through 2.1 until Samford got on base with a single. Koehn finished adding a strikeout to his final line.
Alex Hoppe and
Sam Murchison also made an appearance on the mound. Hoppe pitched 3.2 innings and struck out two batters, bringing his season total to 66. Murchison pitched the final inning and struck out one.
RECORDS
UNCG: 17-23, 2-7 (SoCon)
Samford: 18-19, 5-4 (SoCon)
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Hogan Windish scored the Spartan's first run on a couple of wild pitches after being walked.
- Mitchell Smith's second triple of the season scored two more runs to give UNCG the 3-0 lead.
- Smith was brought home on a sacrifice fly from GC Jarman.
- Windish doubled to left-center field to grow the Spartan's lead to six.
- UNCG added four more runs in the fifth inning.
- Smith scored his second run of the day on a fielder's choice from Zack Budzik.
- Bott doubled up the middle and scored Budzik and Dallas Callahan.
- Kennedy Jones' single to the Bulldog's third baseman brought Bott across the plate for the Spartan's 10th run.
- UNCG's final run came from Jarman on a single by Budzik.
BY THE NUMBERS
- This is the second time this season the Spartans have defeated a team in seven innings.
- Budzik's stolen base in the second inning moved him up to eighth place in the record books with 46 career stolen bases.
- Smith finished the day going 2-for-3 with three RBIs and the only triple of the game.
- This is the second time the Spartans have won a series against Samford in the last five seasons.
- It is the 10th time UNCG has scored 10+ runs this season.
- UNCG pitching only walked one batter, the second-lowest this season.
FINAL WORDS FROM COACH STARBUCK
"We're extremely happy with our first conference series win. We played a complete game. It was great seeing Koehn back on the mound, which was a big boost for our team. Offensively, we put a lot of good at-bats together. We felt like we played a good complete game today."
UPCOMING
UNCG will start a four-game road trip with the Campbell Camels on Wednesday before heading to Charleston, S.C. for a Southern Conference series against The Citadel.
