CHARLESTON, S.C. - The fifth-seeded Samford baseball team was eliminated from the Southern Conference Baseball Tournament with a 7-4 loss to fourth-seeded Elon Friday evening at Joseph P. Riley Park. The loss ends Samford's season with a 31-25 record. Elon improves to 37-21 and advances to face top-seeded The Citadel on Saturday. Both of Samford's losses in the SoCon Tournament came on ninth-inning rallies by the Phoenix. "These were two evenly matched clubs," Samford head coach Casey Dunn said. "They're a good group. They've been winning for a long time over there and they've been able to find a way to get us in the end. It was a good matchup between two good college baseball teams and I am proud to death of the way our team competed." Samford was led at the plate by senior center fielder Wayne Miller, going 3-for-5 with a double and two RBI. Catcher Brad Moss went 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI for the Bulldogs. Senior third baseman Mason Meredeth drove in his 58th run of the season, setting a new Samford single-season record in a 1-for-3 performance. Freshman closer Lex Rutledge suffered the first loss of his Samford career, dropping to 5-1 on the season. Rutledge pitched two-thirds of an inning in relief, giving up three runs on one hit. Kyle Putkonen started the game for the Bulldogs, pitching 7.2 strong innings, giving up just two earned runs on six hits and tying a career-high with eight strikeouts. For Elon at the plate, Ben Scott went 2-for-4 with a home run and three RBI. Alex Swim was 2-for-3 for the Phoenix. Ryan Adams also homered for Elon, going 1-for-2 with an RBI. Elon's Jim Stokes pitched 2.2 innings in relief, giving up one run on three hits to get the win and improve to 2-0 on the season. Kyle Webb got the final out to earn his fourth save of the season. The game was tied at 3-3 heading into the ninth inning. Elon took control of the game, plating four runs in the top of the ninth to take a 7-3 lead. Mike Melillo doubled to drive in Niko Fraser for the go-ahead run. Scott later hit a three-run home run to left field with Melillo and Adams on base for a four-run Phoenix lead. Samford plated one final run in the bottom of the ninth inning to make the final score 7-4. Moss scored from third base when Miller grounded out to shortstop for the game's final run. Elon jumped on top first with a run in the top of the second inning. Adams hit a solo home run to right field to give the Phoenix a 1-0 lead. Samford came back to tie the score with a run in the bottom of the third inning. After Miller doubled to lead off the inning and moved to third base on an error, he scored when Meredeth hit a sacrifice fly to center field to make the score 1-1. The Phoenix took the lead again with a run in the top of the fourth inning. Fraser walked to start the inning and later scored from third base on a wild pitch to give Elon a 2-1 lead.