Greenville, S.C. - Western Carolina broke open a tie game on Thursday night with a seven-run sixth inning as the second-seeded Catamounts powered past No. 6 Samford, 14-4, to advance to Saturday's semifinal round at the 2016 Southern Conference Baseball Championship at Fluor Field.

The Catamounts (27-28) move on to Saturday's semifinals, where they will face No. 1 seed Mercer at noon. The Bulldogs (33-25) drop into the losers' bracket and will face No. 5 seed ETSU in an elimination game Friday at 3:30 pm.

Tied at three through five complete -- and energized by sophomore starting pitcher Brendan Nail's competitive performance on the mound -- the Catamounts sent 12 batters to the plate that collected seven singles and two walks to grab a commanding, 10-4, advantage through six complete.

In that decisive sixth inning, the Catamounts' first six batters in the inning reached, with Bryson Bowman and J.D. Long each recording two-run singles in the rally before Samford's third pitcher of the inning, Jared Brasher, struck out the first batter he faced to stop the onslaught. WCU recorded seven of its 18 hits in the sixth, all of them singles, with Danny Bermudez and Garrett Brown also notching run-scoring base knocks.

The floodgates wide open, the Catamounts would add single runs in the seventh and eighth and two runs in the ninth to salt the game away.

Six different Catamounts recorded multi-hit games with four posting two-or-more RBI. Junior Matt Smith led the way with his fourth career, four-hit performance, tallying three singles and a run-scoring triple in the eighth inning. Sophomore Brett Pope collected a career-high tying three hits in a 3-for-6 outing in just his second game back from injury.

Seniors Garrett Brown and Kramer Ferrell, as well as Bowman each tallied two hits with a pair of RBI in the winning effort, while junior J.D. Long continued his hot close to the season with a 2-for-4, three RBI showing, also plating a run on a sacrifice fly. Senior catcher Danny Bermudez reached three times with a walk, a HBP and a RBI single into right field in the sixth inning.

Spencer Holcomb tacked on a pinch hit RBI double in the latter innings, while one of Wednesday's heroes -- senior Reece Strong -- collected his second two-bagger of the tournament, adding a RBI and a run scored.

Samford led 3-2 after three innings despite having just one hit to that point. A pair of hit batters and a Western Carolina throwing error on a double steal let T.J. Dixon and Hunter Swilling score in the first inning without the benefit of a hit, and Danny Rodriguez's sacrifice fly in the third came after another hit batter, a walk and a fielder's choice.

Ferrell had RBI singles in the first and third innings and Long hit a sacrifice fly in the fourth as the Catamounts kept pace with Samford in the early going.

The offensive fireworks overshadowed impressive pitching performances from WCU starter Brendan Nail (4-6) and reliever Dylan Biumi. The pair combined to limit the potent Bulldog lineup to just four hits, with Nail surrendering four runs -- only two of which were earned -- on three hits in five innings. A product of Greensboro, N.C., Nail posted six strikeouts against the Bulldogs, a year after fanning seven against the same team in the 2015 post-season tournament. Biumi, a second-year right-hander from Cumming, Ga., was brilliant out of the bullpen. He picked up his first career save with four innings of one-hit, scoreless relief, striking out four of his own.

Samford's Rodriguez had two of the Bulldogs' four hits with catcher Richard Greene tallying the lone extra base knock on a double down the left field line.

The loss went to Samford reliever Caleb Maggio (0-1), who was tagged for six runs on five hits and two walks in an inning of work.

Western Carolina has Friday off from tournament play as the championship continues with a pair of loser's bracket games at 3:30 pm and 7:00 pm at Fluor Field.