CHARLESTON, S.C. – The Citadel baseball team dropped the second game of the weekend's three-game, Southern Conference series to Samford by a score of 7-0, Saturday afternoon at Joe Riley Park.

Samford (18-14, 6-2 SoCon) logged the win behind 11 hits and a seven-inning outing by starter Samuel Strickland (W, 5-0). Strickland struck out five batters while giving up just three hits and no walks.

Thomas Byelick (L, 0-4) had a solid outing for The Citadel (12-18, 3-5 SoCon) as he pitched six innings that saw him strike out five batters compared to giving up just one walk and two runs, one earned, while scattering five hits.

The game started off as a pitchers' duel through the first five innings as both Byelick and Strickland gave up only two hits each in the early going. The two defenses combined for five three-up, three-down half innings heading into the sixth.

Samford was able to break the game open with two runs in the sixth and another two in the seventh. The Bulldogs from Birmingham then tacked on three more runs in the top of the eighth off a home run by Troy Dixon. Through Dixon's home run, eight different players had Samford's eight hits.

Taylor Cothran recorded two of The Citadel's five hits on the day with a 2-for-4 outing. Jonathan Sabo, William Kinney and Bryce Leasure each had one hit in the game.

Brooks Carlson, Max Pinto and Anthony Mulrine all logged two hits for Samford.

UP NEXT
The series finale will commence at 1 p.m. on Sunday, April 8.

For more information on The Citadel baseball team, please follow @CitadelBaseball and @CitadelSports on Twitter or visit CitadelSports.com.