FLORENCE, Ala. (February 23, 2026) – The University of North Alabama baseball team will travel for the first time this season for a midweek game with the Samford Bulldogs beginning on Tuesday, Feb. 24 with first pitch slated for 4 p.m. at Joe Lee Griffin Field.
Live stats will be available via StatBroadcast while the game will be streamed on ESPN+.
North Alabama vs. Samford
Friday, February 24, 2026
4:00 p.m.
Live Stats |
ESPN+
NOTES
THE RUNDOWN: The University of North Alabama baseball team closed its eighth-straight home game with an 8-6 win and series sweep of Saint Louis on Sunday afternoon. UNA won the Friday game 7-4 and the Saturday game in a run rule win, 12-2. The chilly, windy final game of series saw a seven-run fourth inning that boosted the Lions to an 8-3 lead. This became the first sweep of the season; UNA had one series sweep in 2025, which came against Central Arkansas in Conway in the final series of the season. UNA earned a 4-1 record in the previous week with a Murray State win to add with the series sweep.
SERIES HISTORY: This will be the 19th all-time meeting between the two programs. The Lions are 12-6 since 1984 but only have one win over the Bulldogs during the Division I era. After UNA joined the ranks of Division I, the two first played in 2019 and the first win came in 2023 — 11-10 in Birmingham. Since 2023, the programs have played two games per season before a cancellation in 2025 for the second game.
SCOUTING THE BULLDOGS: Samford is coming off a weekend series with No. 9 Georgia, being run ruled twice. The Bulldogs are 2-5 to begin the young season with four games to begin the year between Belmont and Alabama visiting Joe Lee Griffin Field. Both wins came against Belmont in the first weekend series before a midweek game against Alabama that saw a 3-2 loss at home. Samford has allowed four games with 10 or more runs to opponents through seven games.
PIMPIN' RIPPEN: Rippen started in all five games against UAB, Murray State and the weekend series sweep against Saint Louis. The senior hit .467 this week with seven hits, seven runs, three home runs, one double and seven RBIs. He slugged 1.133 and had an on-base percentage of .591 while being perfect from the field with a 1.000 percentage. His play helped UNA earn two run rule wins this week and a series sweep – one run rule coming against Murray State, a 2025 College World Series team. This is the first time since 2012 that North Alabama has opened with consecutive three-game series wins in the first two series of the year. Against Murray State, he averaged .667 with three RBIs, a home run and two walks.
BOMBS AWAY: UNA now has three games with multi-home runs this season. Last season, the Lions had nine such games during the entirety of the 2025 season. The Lions had one game with four home runs (North Florida) and one with three home runs (Bellarmine) for the entire 2025 season. This season, however, the team has already accomplished this just in the past week with four against Murray State and three against Saint Louis.
THESE RUNS RULE: North Alabama got a win over the 2025 Cinderella story of collegiate baseball — Murray State — on Wednesday, Feb. 18. The 15-5 score ended the day after just seven innings and became the first run rule win for UNA since the Bellarmine 11-1 win last season when the Mike D. Lane field portion opened at Bank Independent Stadium. UNA added a second run rule win over Saint Louis on Saturday, Feb. 21 for the second one in a singular week.
UP NEXT: After the midweek game against Samford, the Lions host Southern Indiana for a weekend series at Mike D. Lane Field at Bank Independent Stadium on Friday, Feb. 27.
For more information on North Alabama Athletics, visit www.roarlions.com and follow UNA Athletics on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
