LEXINGTON, Va. -  The Samford University baseball team took control of a close game in the middle innings Friday and went on to defeat VMI 17-7 in the opener of a Southern Conference series from Gray-Minor Stadium.

Samford led 3-2 after four innings and scored four in the fifth, two in the sixth and seven in the seventh to open a 16-4 lead. The Keydets chipped away with two in the sixth, one in the seventh and two in the eighth.

John Anderson hit a pair of grand slams for Samford (23-19/9-4 SoCon) and had nine RBI.

Highlights:
*Cole Jenkins went 2-4 with his 11^th home run of the season for VMI and drove in four runs
*Justin Starke was 2-3 and matched Jenkins with his 11^th home run of the year and walked twice
*Jimmy Koza had a hit, a walk and two stolen bases
*Evan Parmer worked a scoreless inning to close out the contest

Next Time:
VMI (22-20) and Samford will play a doubleheader Saturday starting at 2 p.m. to conclude the series.