HOMEWOOD, ALA. – Baseball knocked off Samford on Sunday afternoon by a final score of 12-7 in one of the Bucs' best offensive outings of the season. The victory moves the team to 7-9 on the season as they took down the Southern Conference's preseason favorite as well as a top 90 team in the country in terms of RPI entering the weekend.
 
The Buccaneers wasted no time in the game, scoring four runs in the top of the first inning. Cade Conway drew a leadoff walk and after successfully stealing second base, Chandler Tuupo smacked a double to left field to score Conway. Peter Wert was next up to bat and hit a single through the right side to score Tuupo.
 
Later in the inning, Gavin Bogdanchik had a single moving Werth to second and each runner moved up a base on a wild pitch. Alex Urlaub then reached on an error by the third baseman that brought both Werth and Bogdanchik home to put the Bucs ahead at 4-0.
 
Samford got on the board in the bottom of the second off an RBI single with two runners on. After that, the Bulldogs' next batter grounded into a fielder's choice, double play to end the inning and scoring threat.
 
The Buccaneers then stretched their lead out significantly in the fourth and fifth innings scoring a total of seven runs between them. Christian Bauman and Bogdanchik each had a two RBI hit in the fourth to push up their advantage. In the fifth, Tuupo hit his fourth home run of the season with this one also scoring BJ Banyon. Later in the inning, Bauman got the Bucs' second triple of the year, scoring Werth and putting the team ahead 11-1 as they headed to the bottom half of the fifth.
 
Samford began a late rally in the sixth, hitting a two-run home run in the inning. The Bucs notched their 12^th of the game as a Bauman double scored Banyon in the 7^th. The Bulldogs took a big blow into their deficit in the 8^th as they hit a grand slam to left field but were unable to cut into it more.
 
Matt Gallant had the start for the Bucs today as he threw the first 2.1 of the game, allowing one run to go with three hits and two walks. Nick Timpanelli was the first Buccaneer out of the bullpen going for 1.2 scoreless frames with the Bulldogs collecting two hits and a walk off him. Both CSU pitchers added a pair of Ks in their outings.
 
Zac Robinson finished off the game throwing the final 5.0 and getting his first win of the 2024 season. He had a pair of 1-2-3 innings and struck out four batters. He allowed five hits, a walk and six runs in the game with almost runs against him being scored by the hosts' home runs.
 
The Buccaneers had a tremendous day at the plate finishing with 16 hits across the lineup. Banyon led the team with four hits, tying the team's most in a game this season. Tuupo and Bauman each finished with three hits while Werth and Bogdanchik each had one with Conway and John Emendorfer adding one apiece.
 
Bauman tied the single-game high for this season in RBIs with his two. For the rest of the team, Tuupo batted three runners home, Bogdanchik had two and Werth had one.
 
Charleston Southern will return to campus this evening as the classes start back up tomorrow after the school's spring break. The Buccaneers begin their season series with College of Charleston (10-4) on Tuesday at their place. The action will be available live on FloSports.