Box Score GREENSBORO, N.C. – The Samford baseball team scored 16 runs and pounded out 18 hits on its way to a convincing 16-3 win at UNCG in the first game of a three-game Southern Conference series Friday night at the UNCG Baseball Stadium.
 
Samford starting pitcher Alex Ledford (8-2), who started his college career at UNCG, pitched 7.0 innings, giving up two runs, both in the first inning, on seven hits to earn the win on the mound for the Bulldogs. The Samford defense was solid behind Ledford, turning four double plays on the night.
 
"I thought Alex settled in really well," Samford head coach Casey Dunn said. "Defensively, we turned four double plays behind him. Defensively, I thought we were phenomenal. That was as good of a defensive effort as we've had all year."
 
The 16 runs and 18 hits are both season highs for Samford. Individually for the Bulldogs, Tripp Martin went 3-for-5 with a home run, a double and five RBI. T.J. Dixon went 3-for-6 with three RBI, while Jared Watson went 3-for-5 with two RBI. Drew McWhorter and Caleb Bryson had two hits and two RBI each, while Frankie Navarrete went 2-for-3 for the Bulldogs.
 
"Our guys swung the bats well tonight," Dunn said. "I thought we did a good job. We really hit some hard line drives. We put some balls on a line and we put a couple of balls in the gaps and that led to big innings for us."
 
For UNCG, Hunter King went 2-for-4 with an RBI. Sean Guite went 2-for-4 with a double and a triple. Ryan Clark (3-5) pitched 6.1 innings, giving up eight runs on 10 hits to take the loss on the mound for the Spartans.
 
UNCG jumped on top early with two runs in the bottom of the first inning. Zac MacAneney led the inning off with an infield single. Guite then doubled, moving MacAneney to third base. MacAneney then scored on a wild pitch for the game's first run. With one out in the inning, King singled to drive in Guite for a 2-0 UNCG lead.
 
Samford came back with five runs in the top of the second inning to take a 5-2 lead. Watson singled and Damon Waller was hit by a pitch to start the inning. Martin then doubled to right-center field to drive in Watson and Waller to tie the score. Navarrete was then hit by a pitch. T.J. Dixon reached base on an infield single, and Martin scored on an error on the play. Tyler Filliben then singled to drive in Navarrete for the fourth run of the inning. Dixon then scored on a sacrifice fly by McWhorter for a three-run Samford lead.
 
The Bulldogs added three runs in the top of the seventh inning. Dixon singled and Filliben walked to start the inning. With one out, Heath Quinn doubled to drive in Dixon for the inning's first run. Bryson singled to drive in Filliben to make the score 7-2. Quinn then scored when Watson reached base on a fielder's choice for an 8-2 Samford lead.
 
Samford broke the game open with eight runs in the top of the eighth inning to make the score 16-2. The Bulldogs sent 14 batters to the plate in the inning. Martin drove in three runs in two at-bats in the inning, hitting a solo home run and a two-run single. Dixon, McWhorter, Bryson and Watson also drove in a run each for the Bulldogs in the eighth inning.
 
UNCG plated one final run in the bottom of the ninth inning to make the final score 16-3. Pinch hitter Nick Chapman reached base on an error to start the inning. Chapman later scored on a single by Nin Marrero for the game's final run.
 
With the win, Samford improves to 27-19 overall and 11-8 in Southern Conference play. UNCG falls to 20-20 overall and 7-9 in SoCon play.
 
The teams will continue their series with a game Saturday at 1 p.m. (CT). The game can be heard locally on WVSU-FM 91.1, or worldwide on the internet at www.samford.edu/wvsu. Fans can also follow live stats through links on the baseball schedule page at www.samfordsports.com.