Samford Tops Furman, 7-1, Moves Within One Win of Finals

Game 7: #3 Samford 7, #7 Furman 1
Box Score
SoCon Tournament Central

CHARLESTON, S.C. - Behind the strong pitching performance from starter Charles Basford, Samford shut down the Furman offense for the 7-1 win and advanced in the 2011 Bennett Hospitality Southern Conference Baseball Championship presented by the Carolina Ford Dealers.

Samford improves to 36-22 and will have the all-important rest day tomorrow before it takes the field again Saturday at 9 a.m. The Bulldogs will face the winner of the Appalachian State and Furman game, which will be an elimination game tomorrow at 3 p.m.

Basford threw 8.2 strong innings for Samford, giving up no earned runs on eight hits while striking out five and walking four hitters. Basford improve to 7-4 on the season. Joseph Burns came in for the Bulldogs to record the final out of the game and preserve the win.

Recording the loss for the Paladins was Daniel Stallsmith, who lasted only 2.0 innings and gave up three runs on four hits. Stallsmith's record fell to 4-3 on the season.

Michael Johnson went 4-for-6 for Samford with one run scored and two stolen bases while Tyler Filliben knocked in three of the Bulldogs' runs while crossing the plate once himself. Furman's offense was led by Alex Abrams, who had one RBI on a 3-for-4 evening on the plate.

Samford jumped on top of Furman early as the Bulldogs scored one in the first, two in the second and three in the third to open up a quick 6-0 lead on the way to the victory.

In the first inning, the Bulldogs crossed the plate off a wild pitch and a throwing error. Michael Johnson, who started the game with a single and moved to second base on a sacrifice bunt, moved to third on a wild pitch from Paladin starter Daniel Stallsmith and scored on a throwing error from catcher Paul Nitto.

After Brad Moss' RBI single and Saxon Butler's RBI sacrifice fly in the second inning to increase the Bulldog lead to 3-0, Furman lifted Stallsmith in favor of Nate Smith.

However, in the third inning, Samford loaded the bases and plated three more from a Brandon Powell RBI and a two-RBI single from Filliben.

Samford scored one more in the fifth to increase its lead to 7-0 before Furman would finally strike in the run column. The Paladin third baseman Abrams slapped a RBI single up the middle to bring Will Owens home and plate the lone Furman run for the game.