Samford, Furman prevail at SoCon Baseball Championship

G7: No. 6 seed Samford 6, No. 2 seed Western Carolina 1

GREENVILLE, S.C. – Five Bulldogs tallied three-hit games as No. 6 seed Samford rebounded from a morning loss to oust defending champion and No. 2 seed Western Carolina, 6-1, Thursday at the Southern Conference Baseball Championship presented by Holston Gases at Fluor Field.

Samford (32-35) will face either No. 1 seed Mercer or No. 4 seed Furman on Friday at 3:30 p.m. The Bears and Paladins are squaring off in Thursday's final contest, scheduled for approximately 8:35 p.m.

Western Carolina (28-28) went two-and-out in its bid to defends its 2016 title. The Catamounts had been seeking to extend their league record to 11 titles.

Cameron Blaquiere knocked in WCU's lone run with a sacrifice fly in the second inning, but Samford scored the final six runs of the contest. A three-run third was the difference, as Ayrton Schafer's RBI single tied the game and Austin Edens' run-scoring double put the Bulldogs on top. Schafer then scored on Jordan Fucci's grounder that resulted in an error.

Samford added a run in the fourth on Branden Fryman's RBI infield single, and the Bulldogs put the finishing touches on the scoring with Troy Dixon's RBI single and a dropped fly ball in left that allowed Dixon to score.

Mikhail Cazenave, who earned the final SoCon Pitcher of the Week award of the season, picked up where he left off last week, allowing just one run on four hits and a walk in six innings of work to improve to 5-7.

His counterpart, Brendan Nail (6-8), struck out seven but allowed four runs on 11 hits and two walks in six innings.

Fryman, Schafer, Edens, Dixon and Kevin Williams Jr. had three hits each for the Bulldogs, who dropped a 6-3 decision to UNCG in Thursday's 9 a.m. contest to drop into the losers' bracket.

Designated hitter Andrew Bullock had two of Western Carolina's four hits on the day.

Samford is now just one win away from advancing to the semifinals of the tournament for the fourth straight season.

G8: No. 4 seed Furman 6, No. 1 seed Mercer 1

GREENVILLE, S.C. – Fourth-seeded Furman got eight strong innings from left-hander Grant Schuermann and outhit Mercer 17-10 to send the top-seeded Bears to the losers' bracket of the Southern Conference Baseball Championship presented by Holston Gases with a 6-1 win to cap Thursday's action at Fluor Field.

Furman (31-26), which has now gone 20-6 since April 13, earned a day off and will return to action Saturday at noon in the tournament semifinals against the winner between No. 3 seed UNCG and No. 7 seed ETSU, who square off Friday at noon.

Mercer (39-16), the three-time defending regular-season SoCon champion looking for its second tournament title in three years, will take on No. 6 seed Samford in an elimination game at 3:30 p.m. Friday.

Schuermann (7-4) kept the Bears at bay all evening, allowing just one unearned run on nine hits and no walks and striking out five. He retired eight straight batters from the fifth through seventh innings and twice worked his out of jams in which he allowed consecutive singles.

The redshirt sophomore from Cincinnati, Ohio, has not allowed an earned run in his last 25 innings of work but had his streak of 21 1/3 consecutive scoreless frames snapped when Mercer tallied its lone run Thursday.

Furman's offense did the rest, starting with a 4-spot in the second that staked Schuermann to an early lead. Landon Kay led off the frame with a home run to dead center, Jake Crawford added a two-run single and Sky Overton had an RBI single as the Paladins seized control.

A Carter Grote RBI single in the fourth made it 5-0 before the Bears got on the board on with a run on JT Thomas' RBI groundout.

Furman, which left the bases loaded in the sixth, restored its five-run lead in the seventh with three hits and a Mercer error.

Eight of the Paladins' nine batters got into the hits column, with Overton and Jason Costa picking up three base knocks each. Five other Furman players notched two-hit games.

Alex Hanson paced Mercer's offense with three hits.

Kevin Coulter (5-3) took the loss after allowing four hits on seven hits in three innings. He struck out three and didn't walk a batter.

The SoCon Baseball Championship presented by Holston Gases resumes Friday at noon, when No. 3 seed UNCG and No. 7 seed ETSU battle with a berth in Saturday's semifinals on the line. The loser of that contest will take on No. 9 seed VMI in an elimination contest Friday at 7 p.m.

May 23 (Tuesday)
SoCon Championship presented by Holston Gases (SDN)
(Fluor Field; Greenville, S.C.)
Game 1: #9 VMI 8, #8 The Citadel 0

May 24 (Wednesday)
SoCon Championship presented by Holston Gases (SDN)
(Fluor Field; Greenville, S.C.)
Game 2: #4 Furman 13, #5 Wofford 3 (7 innings)
Game 3: #1 Mercer 11, #9 VMI 6
Game 4: #7 ETSU 8, #2 Western Carolina 6

May 25 (Thursday)
SoCon Championship presented by Holston Gases (SDN)
(Fluor Field; Greenville, S.C.)
Game 5: #3 UNCG 6, #6 Samford 3
Game 6: #9 VMI 6, #5 Wofford 5 (10 innings)
Game 7: #6 Samford 6, #2 Western Carolina 1
Game 8: #4 Furman 6, #1 Mercer 1

May 26 (Friday)
SoCon Championship presented by Holston Gases (SDN)
(Fluor Field; Greenville, S.C.)
Game 9: #7 ETSU vs. #3 UNCG 12 p.m.
Game 10: #6 Samford vs. #1 Mercer 3:30 p.m.
Game 11: #9 VMI vs. Loser Game 9 7 p.m.

May 27 (Saturday)
SoCon Championship presented by Holston Gases (SDN)
Fluor Field; Greenville, S.C.)
Game 12: #4 Furman vs. Winner Game 9 12 p.m.
Game 13: Winner Game 10 vs. Winner Game 11 3:30 p.m.
Game 14: Winner Game 13 vs. Loser Game 12 7 p.m.

May 28 (Sunday)
SoCon Championship presented by Holston Gases (ESPN3)
(Fluor Field; Greenville, S.C.)
Game 15: Winner Game 12 vs. Winner Game 14 12 p.m.
^Game 16: Winner Game 15 vs. Loser Game 15 40 minutes after Game 15

^ if necessary

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