Solid Start for Samford Sports: Baseball, Softball, and Soccer in Action to Kick Off the Weekend
- Chris S
- Mar 26, 2021
- 5 min read
Baseball
1 Day, 2 Wins. Can't Beat That
Game 1: W 7-3
With the threat of rain late on Saturday, Samford announced earlier this week that the series between the Bulldogs and the Buccaneers of ETSU would be played with a doubleheader on Friday and a single game on Saturday.
Samuel Strickland started and lasted for five and two thirds innings. The rotation's ace allowed two earned runs (three crossed the plate) on six hits and two walks while striking out six. Blake Bortak (W, 1-1) picked up the win in relief, pitching a shutout 7th and 8th after inheriting runners on first and second from Charles Crosby who got the final out of the sixth inning. Chase Isbell was tasked with the final inning and he did his job, retiring the side in order with a strikeout looking to start the Top of the 9th in a good way.
Max Pinto launched his second home run of the season in the Bottom of the 8th to give the Bulldogs the lead for good, giving Pinto his 1 hit on the day, his second run of the day (he scored in the 5th on Sonny DiChiara's sac fly to make it a 3-2 ballgame), and his 3 RBIs. Will David was the only other Bulldog to cross the plate multiple times (two times) and he also pitched in the game tying RBI in the Bottom of the 8th.
Game 2: W 10-2
Jesse McCord (W, 2-3) had his best performance of the season so far, throwing six innings and allowing a season low two runs on three hits (another season low) and one walk while striking out a season high 10. Gene Hurst handled the 7th and 8th innings, allowing just one hit in those two innings while striking out 3. Michael Ross put an exclamation point on the night by striking out every batter he saw in the Top of the 9th.
Sonny DiChiara got the game going instantly with a 2 RBI bomb in the Samford half of the 1st and then hit his second homer of the night four innings later to bring his RBI total for the game up to 3 and his season total to 16. Towns King drove in another 2 runs with one coming in the 5th and the second coming as the final run the Bulldogs would score on the day just one inning later. As a team, the Bulldogs collected 14 hits in the second game after tallying just 6 in Game 1.
The Bulldogs will go for the sweep tomorrow with first pitch coming shortly after high noon. With the pair of wins, Samford moves to 13-10 overall and 5-0 in conference play. Samford now has a full series lead over 2nd place VMI for control of the Blue division and has a 2 game lead for the top seed come tournament time over WCU.
Softball
Whitney. Freaking. Hinton.
Game 1: W 10-0 (6 innings)
I would challenge you to name a better start for conference play, but that would be an impossible ask. Run Ruling your opponent with a walk off 3 run bomb to deep left field over the wall (Blue Monster? Sure, let's go with that from now on) is the best start possible.
According to a family friend at Merriam-Webster, the dictionary will be adding "Emily Barnett on 3/26/21 (W, 5-4)" as an alternative definition to the word "efficient." And man oh man was she that today: 6 innings of 2 hit ball and 6 Ks on just 61 pitches. I might have said this in a previous recap, but it won't hurt to repeat myself: when I played baseball in high school, we were told that we should aim for a 60-62% strike percentage. Barnett was lights out and a whopping 70.49 of her pitches were strikes.
Whitney Hinton had herself one helluva game as she went 2-3 with 2 solo blasts, the first clearing the Right Field fence where the angle starts from just above head high to Blue Monster. The second was launched to straight away Center Field, clearing the security camera looking camera holster that ESPN uses for the shot looking into the batters box. Grace Robertson was the only other Bulldog to tally an extra base hit as her 3 run home run was the final nail in the coffin.
Game 2: L 6-1
This game should have been a 3-1 Samford defeat, but the home plate umpire decided that the strike zone would be the size of the chocolate chip cookie Samford sells at all of the concession stands. So Samford's pitchers were faced with a problem: either they (1) throw the ball over the middle of the plate and see the ball get demolished or (2) pitch like the strike zone is a standardized entity and do what has gotten them to D1 ball and be liable to walk a million batters.
Taylor DeCelles (L, 1-5) was out on the mound just long enough to have the game winning run cross due to her pitching, but like I said, the game should have been 3-1 at the most. And don't forget that Softball is a game of momentum. 2 runs is a lot easier to come back from than 6. DeCelles pitched 5+ innings, allowing 4 runs on 3 hits and a walk while striking out 3. Abby Swaney got the final 6 outs, surrendering an additional 2 runs on 4 hits and a walk and recording one third of the outs herself via the K.
Whitney Hinton was the lone bright spot of this game as her 4th inning solo blast over the Blue Monster provided the only run. Both Timberlyn Shurbutt and Kolby Holcombe were very close to joining Hinton in the home run club, but the wind just wasn't strong enough to give their balls that extra little push. Grace Robertson had a solid day at the dish, going a combined 4-6 with 3 runs scored in the first two games of the series against the Lady Bears.
Soccer
Last Second PK Lifts Samford Past Mercer
It was a defensive affair for the first 50:43. While I was not at the match for the start, I was told by several different people who had been there the entire time that Mercer easily controlled the ball for the 30ish minutes I missed due to being at the Softball game. Up until the final 5 or so minutes of the first half, Mercer had the ball in our third of the pitch for what seemed like minutes at a time.
Mercer scored the first goal of the match off of a beautifully executed corner kick, the likes of which I have only seen from a FIFA trailer where the ball was struck with just the right amount of curve and power so that it would be impossible to save off of the head of the Lady Bear midfielder.
Samford leveled the match at one a piece about 20 minutes later as Ella Simpson finished off a corner of her own off the foot of Senior Midfielder Alyssa Frazier. As time in regulation was winding down, Alex Bice was fouled hard by the Lady Bear goalkeeper on a breakaway, allowing Alyssa Frazier to burry the PK and ensure the Bulldogs would pick up 3 points and stay in the running for the regular season championship.
Follow us on Twitter for updates from select Baseball and Softball games this season and for breaking news. For updates on when we post, follow us on Instagram and turn on post notifications. If what we're doing here interests you, be sure to subscribe to the site and you'll get an email notification every time that something new is posted to the site. We are working on additional features all the time, so if you have a suggestion, leave a comment at the end of the piece, or you can send us a message on Instagram and/or Twitter.
Comments