All it took to end Furman's 11-game Southern Conference winning streak was the league's top closer working twice as long as he had all year Sunday. Samford standout reliever Wyatt Burns tossed six scoreless innings as the Bulldogs rallied for a 4-3 win.
Samford's win denied the Paladins' bid for a fourth consecutive SoCon series sweep.
Things looked good early on for Furman (25-22, 12-9) as Jake Crawford hit a two-out, RBI-single in the second. With two out in the third, Brandon Elmy hit an RBI-double and Landon Kay followed with an RBI-single to stake the Paladins to a 3-0 lead.
When the Paladins came to bat in the fourth they were greeted by Burns, who leads the SoCon in saves with 12. Burns allowed a pair of one-out singles, but got out of the jam and Samford rallied in the bottom of the inning.
With one out in the fourth, Austin Edens hit his ninth home run. After a single and a walk, Ayrton Schafer belted his eighth homer to give the Bulldogs a 4-3 lead.
Burns made the lead hold up, allowing only two more hits the rest of the way. One of those was a double by Jabari Richards in the ninth. Sky Overton was hit by a pitch with two out, putting two men on for Brandon Elmy. Elmy hit a rocket right at Samford third baseman Taylor Garris who made the catch to end the game.
Burns (4-0), who's longest outing this year prior to Sunday was three innings, had no walks and two strikeouts. Burns, who threw 63 of his 80 pitches for strikes, has won or saved 59.3 percent of the wins for Samford (27-21, 8-10) this season.
Troy Dixon went 3-for-3 to lead the Bulldogs.
Matthew Quarles (6-3) allowed four runs on six his in 6 1/3 innings for Furman. Richards went 3-for-5 for Furman, which stranded 10 baserunners and failed to take advantage of three Samford errors.
The Paladins return to action Tuesday when they take on Clemson at Fluor Field. First pitch is scheduled for 7 p.m.
No comments:
Post a Comment