Greenville, S.C. - Western Carolina returns to the Southern Conference Baseball Championship title game for the first time since 2010, as the second-seeded Catamounts got four hits from senior Kramer Ferrell and topped No. 6 seed Samford on Saturday, 7-4, to punch its ticket for Sunday's title tilt at Fluor Field.

WCU (28-29) will face No. 1 seed and defending champion Mercer at 1:00 pm on ESPN3 with live streaming audio from the Catamount Sports Network online at CatamountSports.com.

The Catamounts and Bears played Saturday, as well, with Mercer topping Western Carolina 9-8 to drop WCU into Saturday night's losers' bracket elimination game. WCU will have to top Mercer twice Sunday to win its first title since 2003 and league-record 10th title overall. The Bears will be trying for their second title in as many seasons in the league and could become the SoCon's first back-to-back winners since The Citadel won consecutive crowns in 1998 and 1999.

Samford (35-26), vying for its fifth title-game appearance in six years, saw its season end at 35-26.

Down 1-0 after Samford's Alex Lee's second-inning home run, Western Carolina scored all seven of its runs from the third to fifth, tying the game on Brett Pope's RBI single in the third inning before going ahead with three runs in the fourth, highlighted by J.D. Long's two-run single. Three more runs following in the fifth on Danny Bermudez's RBI double and Ferrell's two-run single as the Catamounts took a 7-1 lead.

Samford got a pair of solo homers in the sixth to stop the bleeding, with Heath Quinn launching his league-leading 21st of the year and Lee following one out later with his second of the night and 11th of the season. The Bulldogs added another run in the seventh on T.J. Dixon's RBI groundout, but that was as close as they would get.

In addition to another solid offensive effort, Western Carolina -- which has scored a tournament-best 39 runs and averaged 9.8 runs per game in the tournament -- got some solid defense in Saturday night's contest. With Samford threatening with two on and two out in the fifth, left fielder Ferrell threw out Dixon at the plate trying to score on a Hunter Swilling single. Two innings later, right fielder Bryson Bowman made a nice sliding grab of Swilling's line drive to end the inning. Second baseman Long made a sensational play to end the first inning, as well, laying out to his left to snag Quinn's grounder just beyond the infield dirt to throw him out at first.

Western Carolina redshirt junior Dillon Bray (2-4) turned in a solid effort to earn the win, allowing three runs on seven hits in 5.1 innings, matching a career-best by striking out six. Korey Anderson, who threw two innings against Mercer earlier in the day, went the final three innings to earn the first save of his career. He allowed just three hits and struck out four, including the side in the eighth. Chad Mabini filled the gap, tossing two thirds of a frame.

Jake Greer, Samford's second pitcher of the day, took the loss, falling to 3-2 after allowing five runs (four earned) on three hits and three walks in an inning and a third. Josh Rich, making his first start of the season after 25 relief appearances, gave the Bulldogs three innings, allowing just one run on three hits and a pair of walks.

Ferrell was one of two Catamounts with multi-hit games, matching a career-high with four hits in a 4-for-5 performance with two RBIs and a run scored in the contest. Bermudez had the Catamounts' only other multi-hit performance with two base knocks including a double. Senior Garrett Brown also doubled with Long plating a pair of runs.

Lee finished 3-for-4 with a pair of solo homers for the Bulldogs, who also got two hits each from Danny Rodriguez and Richard Greene.

Quinn, whose solo homer was his final hit of the season, finished his junior campaign with 77 RBIs, leading the league in that category.