TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Charles Basford pitched eight shutout innings and four Samford teammates homered to lead the Southern Conference champions to a 5-0 victory over Southeastern Conference winner Mississippi State in the opening game of the Tallahassee Regional on Friday.

Brandon Miller, Saxon Butler, C.K. Irby and Christiaan Durdaller all homered for Samford, which put the game away with three home runs in the eighth inning and earned its first regional win in school history.

Basford (10-2) scattered five hits before giving way in the ninth to Irby, who got the final three outs. Basford, who played his high school ball in Tallahassee, had a season-high 131 pitches and struck out four.

“It obviously was a great outing by Charles,” Samford coach Casey Dunn said. “I thought the biggest thing was he just stayed at the bottom of the strike zone. We feel like, when he is going good, he works down in the zone, and he did that really well today. I thought he did a great job of staying consistent.”

Miller’s 23rd home run in the second inning got the scoring started against Mississippi State ace Chris Stratton (11-2).

“They did a good job of just going down and getting pitches,” Stratton said. “It really reminded me of Kentucky, just the way they could go down and get it. They had a good plan and they executed it really well.”

Irby had three hits for Samford (40-21) while Mitch Slauter had two for Mississippi State (39-23).

“I thought Samford Samford did a great job today,” MSU coach John Cohen said. “We didn’t recognize pitches (Friday). I don’t know if it was a focus issue

“Our kids are disappointed. The tournament goes on. Our kids are looking forward to that challenge.”