Box Score BIRMINGHAM, Ala.—The Samford baseball team dropped a 15-4 decision to in-state rival Troy Wednesday evening at Joe Lee Griffin Field.
 
Samford was led at the plate by Christiaan Durdaller and Zeth Stone, with each hitting a home run in the loss. Austin Allison also drove in one run for the Bulldogs.
 
Patrick Maronde (1-2) pitched 1.0 inning, giving up three runs on one hit to take the loss on the mound for Samford. Maronde was one of eight pitchers used by Samford in the game.
 
For Troy at the plate, Danny Collins went 3-for-5 with two doubles and three RBI. Logan Pierce went 3-for-4 with two RBI and Trae Santos went 3-for-5 with two RBI. Josh McDorman went 2-for-4 with a home run and three RBI. Thomas Austin (2-0) pitched 3.0 innings in relief, giving up no runs on three hits to pick up the win for the Trojans.
 
Troy scored three runs in the top of the first inning on just one hit to grab the early lead. Samford came back in the bottom of the second inning when Durdaller led the inning off with a home run to cut the lead to 3-1.
 
The Trojans plated two more runs in the top of the third inning to make the score 5-1, but Stone led the bottom of the third off with another solo home run for Samford to pull the Bulldogs to within three runs at 5-2.
 
Troy broke the game open in the middle innings. The Trojans plated three runs in the fourth inning, four runs in the fifth inning and two runs in the sixth inning. In that same stretch, Samford scored two runs in the bottom of the fourth inning, and Troy held a 14-4 lead after six innings.
 
The Trojans added one final run in the eighth inning to make the final score 15-4. As a team, Troy out hit Samford, 14-8 in the contest.
 
With the loss, Samford falls to 19-15, while Troy improves to 23-9 with the win.
 
Samford will return to action on Friday, April 12, when the Bulldogs open a three-game Southern Conference series at Western Carolina. The teams will play Friday at 4 p.m. (CT), Saturday at 1 p.m. (CT) and Sunday at 12 p.m. (CT) in Cullowhee, N.C. All three games can be heard locally on WVSU-FM 91.1, or worldwide on the internet at www.samford.edu/wvsu.