ROME, Ga. – The Birmingham-Southern baseball team opened Southern Athletic Association tournament action with a resounding 10-0 victory over Rhodes College Thursday, April 22 at State Mutual Stadium. BSC registered 17 total hits as every Panther starter tallied a hit.
 
The Panthers (23-13 overall) advance to face Centre College Friday at noon ET. Centre knocked off No. 1 seed Berry, 8-0, Thursday afternoon.
 
Birmingham-Southern opened the scoring with two runs in the first and second innings, and then put the game away with four runs in the eighth inning and two more in the ninth. 
 
Jack Fleming (Suwanee, Ga./Lambert), on the strength of an eighth-inning grand slam, led the team with four RBI. He added the Panthers' lone stolen base for the game. Drew Love (Birmingham, Ala./Gardendale) had three hits and was one of five players with multiple hits in the contest. Love finished 3-for-5 with two runs scored, a double, a home run, and two RBI. 
 
Luke DePiero (Atlanta, Ga./The Walker School), Cole Steadman (Birmingham, Ala./Briarwood Christian), Will Evans (Peachtree City, Ga./Starrs Mill), and Will Lantis (Marietta, Ga./Pope) all had two hits in the victory. Steadman and Love each recorded a pair of RBI for the Panthers. 
 
On the mound, senior Andy Hammond (Oxford, Ala./Oxford) hurled his second complete-game shutout, allowing just three hits with 10 strikeouts in nine innings. It's the second time this season Hammond reached double-digit strikeouts in an outing.