PADUCAH, Ky. – Top-seeded Samford eliminated #4 Eastern Kentucky in game nine of the 2006 O'Reilly OVC Baseball Tournament Saturday afternoon, 24-6. The Bulldogs (34-24) advance to the championship game to face #2 Jacksonville State later today while the Colonels end their season with an overall record of 29-26.
Junior Charlie Yarbrough, the OVC Player of the Year, led the EKU batsmen by going 3-for-5 with two RBIs. He finished with 69 RBIs on the season, fifth most in the program's single-season record books. Meanwhile, sophomore Lucas Waters went 2-for-3 at the plate with a double and two RBIs.
Eastern got on the board first with a pair of runs in the bottom of the second inning. The Colonels capitalized on four singles highlighted by a two-out, two-run base hit by Waters. Samford immediately answered with five runs in the third. Louis Rojas sparked the Bulldog inning with a three-run homer to right field. Rojas finished the game 4-for-4 with seven RBIs and six runs scored.
The Colonels responded with two runs of their own in the bottom half of the frame to creep to within one at 5-4. However, Samford tallied seven runs in the top of the fourth and never looked back.
David Knapp (7-4) picked up the win for Samford by going 7.0 innings and allowing five runs. Senior Nick Barte (1-6) took the loss for EKU as he allowed six earned runs in three-plus innings of work.
ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAMCharlie Yarbrough - IF - Eastern KentuckyJoe Oliver - C - Eastern KentuckyParker Gargis - IF - Samford
Louis Rojas - IF - Samford
Bert Smith - IF - Jacksonville State
Nick Cleckler - OF - Jacksonville State
Dustin Pritchett - OF - Southeast Missouri
Bear Burnett - OF - Samford
Clay Whittemore - OF - Jacksonville State
Garrett Bass - DH - Jacksonville State
Christian Friedrich - P - Eastern KentuckyTony Drinkard - P - Jacksonville State
Shawn Kelley - P - Austin Peay
TOURNAMENT MVP: Clay Whittemore, Jacksonville State
