The Samford baseball team defeated Mercer 5-0 on May 3, handing Mercer its first shutout of the season in the final game of a three-game Southern Conference series at Joe Lee Griffin Field.
This result brings Samford’s record to 24-21 overall and 9-6 in conference play, while Mercer drops to 35-13 overall and also stands at 9-6 in league games.
Noah Berry earned the win for Samford after pitching five and one-third innings, allowing just four hits. John Malone, Austin Tommasini, and Zak Spurrier finished the game for Samford. “We’ve been blessed with a lot of great pitchers over the years and a lot of really good performances, but, situationally, against one of the best offenses in the country, and the fact that we just had to have it today, this was huge,” Samford head coach Tony David said. “What Berry did out there for five-plus inning, kept them off balance. He worked around a couple of walks but just got a lot of soft contact. We were fortunate a couple of times when they did hit it hard, it was right at us. John was great again and Tommasini there and then Spurrier on the back end was able to come in and fill it up.”
At bat for Samford, Trey Higgins went two-for-four with a double, home run and one run batted in (RBI). Eddie Marshall homered as well with two RBIs during his one-for-two performance. Parker McDonald added two hits including an RBI double.
Mercer’s Jeb Johnson took the loss after giving up five runs on eight hits over four innings pitched. Six different Bears players each recorded one hit.
Samford scored twice early with Higgins hitting a home run followed by McDonald’s RBI double in the second inning. The Bulldogs added three more runs in the fourth through singles from Luke Boykin and Marshall’s two-run homer.
Looking ahead, Samford will travel to Florence to face North Alabama on Tuesday with first pitch scheduled for 4 p.m., available live on ESPN+.
