Greenville, S.C. – Furman scored a pair of runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to take the lead and held on to down Samford, 7-6, in the finale of a three-game Southern Conference softball series on Sunday afternoon at Pepsi Stadium. 
 
With the victory, Furman snapped an eight-game league losing skid and improved to 19-23 overall and 4-8 in the SoCon. Samford had its five-game winning streak snapped and dropped to 14-26 overall and 7-5 in conference play.
 
With one out and the game tied at 5-5 in the bottom of sixth, senior Chloe Fabio worked walk against Samford reliever McKenzie Newcomb. Ashlee Lykins followed with her third hit of the day, a single down the left field line. Newcomb threw three pitches to Paladin designated player Caitlin Goldwait before exiting the game with an apparent injury. Jordyn Partain came on in relief to retire Goldwait on a grounder that put two runners in scoring position, but a wild pitch allowed Fabio to cross the plate with the go-ahead run. Sylvia Burroughs followed with a double down the left field line to drive in Lykins and extend the Furman lead to 7-5.
 
McKayla Cothran opened the top of the seventh with a single for the Bulldogs. Two batters later, Logan Champion blooped a single into right field. Kaitlyn Laudick fired to third base in an attempt to get the lead runner. Fabio caught the throw in front of the third base bag and threw a strike to Alex Rose Molinar at second base to nab Champion trying to advance. Cothran scored on the play to trim the margin to 7-6, but Furman reliever Emme Buzhardt got Katie Campbell to pop out to first base to retire the side and secure her second victory of the year.
 
Buzhardt (2-3) picked up the victory despite allowing two runs on three hits over 1.2 innings of work. Newcomb (3-3), who surrendered two runs on a hit and a walk while retiring one batter, suffered the loss for Samford.
 
Furman grabbed an early 4-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning. Ansley Chiang drove in a run by reaching on an error. After she swiped second, Laudick laced a two-run double to the base of the right field fence to up the lead to 3-0. Kiley Perry capped the rally with an RBI single to score Laudick as the Paladins took advantage of four hits and two Bulldog miscues in the frame.
 
Lauralee Scott came on in relief of starter Sierra Tufts in the top of the fifth with two runners on base and retired three straight batters to get the Paladins out of a jam. Furman maintained a 5-1 advantage after five innings before Samford's middle of the order mounted a rally. Champion followed Bruce's leadoff single in the sixth with a two-run blast and Olivia Shaw singled to bring the tying run to the plate. Furman turned to Buzhardt out of the bullpen, but Linsey Hargis launched a two-run clout to left field off the junior to knot the contest at 5-5.
 
Champion finished 3-for-4 with two RBIs, Cothran collected two hits and scored a pair of runs, and Hargis went 1-for-2 with two RBIs and a base on balls to power the Bulldog offense.
 
Lykins, who has now reached base in 37 of Furman's last 39 games, went 3-for-3 with two runs on the day. She also was hit by a pitch to finish the afternoon having reached base safely in all four trips to the plate. Laudick finished 1-for-2 with a walk and two RBI's while Perry and Ainsley Yoshizumi registered two hits apiece for the Paladins.
 
Furman concludes its regular season non-conference schedule on Wednesday with a 4 p.m. doubleheader at Queens in Charlotte, N.C.