Samford Baseball Sweeps Doubleheader at Furman - WVTM-TV: News, Weather, and Sports for Birmingham, AL

GREENVILLE, S.C.—The Samford baseball team swept a Southern Conference doubleheader at Furman Friday afternoon at Latham Stadium. The Bulldogs defeated the Paladins by scores of 9-1 and 9-4.

In the first game, C.K. Irby (4-2) pitched a complete game and tied a Samford record with 16 strikeouts, while allowing no walks. The 16 strikeouts ties a record set by Josh Ehmke on May 13, 2006, at Tennessee Tech.

In addition to his performance on the mound, Irby led the Bulldogs at the plate as well. He went 3-for-5 with a home run and two RBI. Phillip Ervin went 2-for-5 with a home run and an RBI. Austin Allison also hit a home run in the first game, going 1-for-5 at the plate.

"In the first game, I thought we played great," Samford head coach Casey Dunn said. "C.K. was unbelievable on the mound, and I thought we had really good at-bats and we extended the lead late. I couldn't be more pleased with what we did in game one."

For Furman in game one, Andrew MacLatchie drove in the Paladins' lone run with a solo home run in his only at-bat of the game. Nate Smith (2-1) pitched 7.0 innings, striking out eight batters and walking three to take the loss on the mound for Furman.

In game one, Samford jumped on top first with four runs in the top of the second inning. Ervin led the inning off with a home run to left field for the game's first run. With two outs in the inning, Brandon Haarer and Richard Greene singled, and Frankie Navarrete walked to load the bases. Allison then reached base on an error, and Haarer and Greene scored on the play for a 3-0 Samford lead. Navarrete then stole home on a double steal in which Allison took second base and Samford took a 4-0 lead.

The Bulldogs added a run in the third inning to push their lead to 5-0. Irby and Ervin led the inning off with back-to-back singles. With one out in the inning, Caleb Bryson singled to drive in Irby for a five-run Samford lead.

Samford plated another run in the top of the seventh inning. Allison led the inning off with his first home run of the season to give Samford a 6-0 lead. The Bulldogs also scored a run in the eighth inning. Christiaan Durdaller singled and later scored when Greene reached base on a fielder's choice for a 7-0 Samford lead.

The Bulldogs added two final runs in the top of the ninth inning. Irby hit a two-run home run to make the score 9-0.

Furman got on the scoreboard with a run in the bottom of the ninth inning. MacLatchie led the inning off with a home run to make the final score 9-1.

In game two, Samford was led by Ervin, going 4-for-4 with a double and an RBI. Durdaller went 2-for-4 with three RBI, while Bryson went 2-for-5 with two RBI.

Alex Milazzo (4-0) pitched 5.0 innings, allowing four runs, just one earned, on eight hits to earn the win on the mound. Milazzo struck out seven batters and overcame an early three-run deficit to get the win. Parker Curry, Andres Gracia and Arthur Strauss split the final 4.0 innings to close out the game and secure the win in game two for Samford.

"The biggest thing is, we threw strikes," Dunn said. "Alex obviously had a rough inning, but we put him in the whole because we failed to make a couple of plays that would have changed his outing. But he battled, I thought he kept his composure well and he was able to put up a couple of zeros after the three-run inning. Parker came in and threw strikes, and I thought we played really well defensively behind him. Then Andres came in and got the two huge outs in the eighth, and then Arthur did his job in the ninth."

For Furman in game two, Chris Ohmstede and Jordan Simpson had two hits each. Elliott Warford (0-3) pitched 3.1 innings in relief, allowing four runs on five hits to take the loss on the mound for the Paladins.

Samford jumped on top first again in game two, plating a run in the top of the first inning. Allison led the inning off with a single and later scored on a single by Ervin for a 1-0 lead.

Furman tied the game with a run in the bottom of the first inning. Hunter Burton singled with one out in the inning. Burton then scored on a double by Paul Nitto to make the score 1-1.

The Paladins added three unearned runs in the second inning to take a 4-1 lead. Ohmstede singled to lead off the inning and later scored on a Samford error for the first run of the inning. Simpson also singled and later scored on a Samford error, with Will Muzika scoring on the same play for a three-run Furman lead.

Samford came back with three runs in the top of the third inning to tie the score at 4-4. Allison walked to lead off the inning and later scored on a Furman error for the first run of the inning. Durdaller later singled to drive in Tommy Corbin and Ervin to tie the score.

The Bulldogs took the lead again with two runs in the top of the fifth inning. Corbin scored the inning's first run when Patrick McGavin reached base on a fielder's choice. The final run of the inning was scored when Durdaller hit a sacrifice fly to right field to drive in Irby for a 6-4 Samford lead.

Samford added two more runs in the top of the seventh inning to make the score 8-4. Bryson singled to drive in Ervin and Brandon Powell for a four-run Samford lead. The Bulldogs added one final run in the top of the ninth inning to push their lead to 9-4. Bryson singled to drive in Ervin for the final run of the game.

With the sweep, Samford improves to 14-10 overall and 4-4 in Southern Conference play. Furman drops to 15-8 overall and 5-6 in league play.

Samford and Furman will wrap up their three-game series with a single game Saturday afternoon. The game is scheduled to start at 3 p.m. (CT) from Latham Stadium.

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