May 15, 2010

Box Score

Birmingham, Ala. - After falling behind by three runs in the home half of the first inning, Western Carolina twice rallied to close to within a run of the home standing Samford Bulldogs but could never pull even in dropping the opener of its three-game Southern Conference road series, 7-6, Friday night at J.L. Griffin Field.

Senior Trevor Collias, who finished 2-for-3 on the night, pulled WCU to within a run with a one-out RBI triple in the eighth inning to score Ross Heffley from second base. However, Bulldog freshman closer Lex Rutledge was summonsed from the bullpen to strand Collias at third and later struck out the side in the ninth to collect his 10th save of the season.

Game two of the series has been moved to a 3:00 pm CT / 4:00 pm ET first pitch because of graduation ceremonies on Samford's campus. The game will be broadcast on the Catamount Sports Network and can be heard online at CatamountSports.com with a 2:45 pm CT / 3:45 pm ET air time.

Freshman right-hander Taylor Sandefur (1-2) was saddled with the loss after scattering nine base hits and seven runs in six innings of work. He struck out one with three walks. Four Catamount hurlers combined to toss the final two innings with Jeremy Sluder, Vance Chavis and Andrew Chilcoat each posting a strikeout, while Brandon Johnson threw one pitch to induce a pop-up in a third of an inning thrown.

Samford (28-20, 15-9 SoCon) loaded the bases with back-to-back base hits to open the bottom of the first inning with a failed attempt at a forced out a second base putting the third runner aboard for the Bulldogs. A wild pitch by Sandefur allowed the first run to score with Gary Cramer driving in the other two runs with a single through the right side for the early, 3-0, lead.

The Bulldogs would add a fourth run in the third inning as shortstop Michael Johnson doubled in a run from third for a 4-0 advantage through three.

Western Carolina (30-17-1, 12-12-1 SoCon) would trim the deficit to one for the first time in the top of the fourth with a three-spot, capitalizing on four hits. Collias opened the rally with a two-out single up the middle with Ollie Goulder dropping a single into left to put two aboard for Cameron Dullnig who singled to drive in the first run. Freshman Tyler White then doubled to left center to plate a pair of runs to pull the Catamounts to within one, 4-3.

Goulder and Dullnig each finished 2-for-4 for WCU in the loss, combining to drive in three runs.

However, Samford answered with three-straight runs including two in the fourth and a solo home run to right by Johnson in the fifth to lead 7-3 through five innings. Johnson finished 2-for-3 for the Bulldogs with Stephen Ballard posting a three-hit performance with a trio of singles, scoring a pair of runs.

In the sixth inning, Goulder became the fourth Catamount to reach double-digit home runs as he belted his 10th round-tripper of the season on the first pitch of his at bat, a two-run shot to left to make it 7-5, Bulldogs, setting up the final two frames.

Jonathan Stephens (7-1) earned the win for Samford after tossing five and a third innings, allowing five earned runs on seven hits with four strikeouts. Rutledge fanned four in recording five outs to tally the save.