Late Bomb Sinks Trojans

Friday, April 11

Boca Raton, Fla.

6:00 PM

Troy University

Florida Atlantic

4/11/2008 5:00:00 AM | Baseball

BOCA RATON, Fla. - Nick Arata hit a walk-off home run to sink the Trojans in the bottom of the ninth inning as Troy fell to Florida Atlantic 6-5, Friday night at FAU Stadium.

Troy (20-14, 9-4) drew first blood with a run in the top of the first inning. Steven Felix singled and scored on an RBI double off the bat of catcher Beau Brooks for the early 1-0 lead.

FAU (20-11, 9-5) answered back with a run in the bottom half of the inning what Arata doubled and scored on a Travis Ozga single knotting the game at 1-1.

Freshman Adam Bryant hit his first home run of the season in the top of the second inning to put Troy back on top at 2-1.

Felix walked in the third inning and scored on Brooks' fifth home run of the year pushing the lead to 4-1.

Arata scored another run for the Owls in the third inning cutting the lead to 4-2. FAU added another run in the sixth for the 4-3 Trojan lead.

The Trojans could only muster two more hits in the game as Troy was out hit 13-6. Charley Williams doubled in the seventh and scored on a fielder's choice from Bart Pettus for the 5-4 advantage.

Jordan Mathers came into the game with a the bases loaded and two outs in the seventh inning and struck out Ozga to end the threat.

Josh Storm was handed the ball in the eighth inning and with a runner at third, he threw a ball past Brooks allowing the runner form third to score tying the game at 5-5 before issuing the home run to Arata.

Tim Wheeler had a solid performance on the hill for Troy going six and two thirds innings and allowing four runs on 10 hits while walking two and striking out three.

Brooks led the Trojans with two hits and three RBI.

The Trojans will look to bounce back tomorrow afternoon when the two teams play the second game of the series. First pitch is set for 3 pm CT.