GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Jabari Richards, Deon Sanders, and Griffin Davis homered and Furman's bullpen delivered four crucial innings of shutout baseball to help the No. 4 seed Paladins claim a 15-10 victory over No. 3 seed UNCG in a Southern Conference Tournament elimination game Friday evening at Fluor Field.

The win, the 14th in the last 19 games for Furman (29-29), advances the Paladins into a Saturday, 3:30 p.m. elimination game versus Samford, which defeated East Tennessee State in earlier action on Friday.  It also improved the Paladins to 7-2 against UNCG in SoCon Tournament play — the best mark versus any league foe.

Playing without three injured starters and facing the nation's top hitting team in the Spartans, who entered the contest with a .346 team batting average, the Paladins built a 9-4 lead only to see it erased by UNCG's six unanswered runs.  Furman regrouped by tallying six runs in the sixth inning to take a 15-10 lead and then got three innings of scoreless relief from Nolan Mullen and a perfect ninth from Jake Crawford to nail down the win.

Jabari Richards, the SoCon's Freshman of the Year, led off the game with the first of three Paladin home runs in the contest.  His towering shot to right field was his 10th route job of the season.

The advantage didn't last long, however, as a Paladin error led to three unearned runs in the bottom of the first on Dillon Stewart's three-run blast off Furman starting pitcher Heath Hawkins.

Furman tied it at 3-3 in the second with back-to-back home runs by Deon Sanders, his sixth of the season, and Griffin Davis, whose blast cleared the Green Monster in left field for his second long ball of the tournament.

Furman took advantage of a Spartan error in the fourth to plate three more runs to go up 9-4.

UNCG countered with a four-run fourth via a Michael Goss home run, a Collin Woody RBI double, and Dillon Stewart two-run single to cut Furman's advantage to 9-8, and an inning later the Spartans plated two more runs to take a 10-9 lead.

The Paladins opened the decisive sixth with a pair of walks and, following a pitching change, Matt Towarnicky, Jabari Richards, and Sims Griffith stroked consecutive singles, with Griffith's base hit to right field plating two runs.  Jordan Simpson fought off an 0-2 pitch from Spartan reliever Andrew Wantz for a base hit that drove home Richards.  Griffith then raced home on a wild pitch for the frame's fifth run, and Sky Overton completed the rally by scoring on a Deon Sanders line drive sacrifice fly to make it 15-10.

Mullen came on in the bottom of the sixth and used a double play ball to keep the Spartans off the scoreboard for only the second time in the contest.  He followed with a perfect seventh and faced only three batters in the eighth before turning it over to Crawford, who retired the Spartans in order in the ninth.

Davis went 3-for-5 with three RBI and scored three runs to pace Furman's 15-hit attack.  Jake Crawford also had three hits  and scored two runs.  Richards, MacLatchie, and Towarnicky finished with two hits apiece.  The only starter who didn't scratch in the hit column, Sky Overton, tied a Furman single game record with five walks, part of a season high 12 bases on balls registered by the Paladins.

Billy Greenfield (4-1) was credited with the win after coming on with two-on and two-out the fifth and helping limit the Spartans to just two runs.

The loss was charged to Bryce Hensley (5-3).

Hunter Reid, Furman Sports Information