AUBURN, Ala.
? Maybe all Troy
junior Beau Brooks needed was a couple of days off.
After seeing only limited time in Saturday's double-header
at Louisiana-Lafayette, where he was hitless in four at bats in the series,
Brooks came back strong on Tuesday night, blasting a pair of solo homers to go
with an RBI double in leading the Trojans to a 6-3 victory over Auburn at
Plainsman Park.
“I guess the rest helped a little, but it was more a matter
of listening to what Coach Pierce told me,” Brooks said of his big game. “He's
been telling me to stay back more and be patient and I did that a little better
tonight. Hopefully, this will carry over into the rest of the season.”
The win allowed the Trojans (27-19) to split the season
series with the Tigers (24-22). Auburn won 6-4
in Troy on
March 18. The win was Troy's first at Auburn since February 16,
1999. The loss for the Tigers was their 10th in the last 12 games.
Troy
won despite leaving 13 runners on base during the game. Going back to the
second game at ULL on Saturday, the Trojans have now left 27 runners on base
over the last 18 innings of play.
“I am pleased with the effort we had tonight but, with 17
hits, we should have scored a lot more runs,” Troy
coach Bobby Pierce said. “We have been harping on it and harping on it, but we
just never seem to be able to get that next hit when we need it.”
Despite all of the hits, the Trojans were not able to
deliver with runners in scoring position, and that left the door open for the
Tigers.
“We could have put the game away early, but we let Auburn hang around and
they had a chance late,” Pierce said. “Fortunately, Drew Hull pitched well,
Neal Jordan did his job and Josh Storm finished it off for us.”
The Trojans jumped on top early against Auburn
starter Taylor Thompson, who worked just one inning. Adam Bryant reached on an
infield single, moved to second with Michael Precise was hit by a pitch and
scored with Beau Brooks threaded a double just inside the bag at first and down
the right field line.
Auburn got that run back in
the second inning off Troy starter Rob Brown
when Matt Hall doubled to left-center, scoring Kevin Patterson, who had walked,
from second.
Troy reclaimed the lead with
three runs in the fourth inning off Auburn
reliever Michael Hurst (2-4). Brock Kelley and Brett Pierce opened things with
consecutive one-out singles. After Bryant popped to the pitcher on a sacrifice
bunt attempt, Steven Felix reached on an infield single to score Kelley and
Bryan Miller followed with a bloop double to right, scoring both Pierce and
Felix.
The double was Miller's NCAA-leading 24th of the
season.
Auburn
got one run back in the bottom of the inning when Brian Fletcher hit Brown's
first pitch over the wall in left for his sixth homer of the season. After walking
David Cunningham, Brown was lifted in favor of freshman Drew Hull, who got
back-to-back ground balls, one for a double play, to end the inning.
Hull
(4-0) earned the victory with three solid innings of relief. He allowed just
one unearned run on three hits while walking one and striking out one. Junior
Josh Storm came on the work the final 1.2 innings to earn his eighth save of
the year.
“It's always fun to come back to your home town and get a
chance to play,” Hull, an Auburn High School
product, said. “I needed to come in and throw strikes and, getting that double
play right off the bat was a big momentum swing. It kind of took the wind from
their sails and we rolled from there.”
The Trojans got that run back in the fifth when Brooks
launched his seventh homer of the season to chase Hurst. Troy
had a chance to add to the lead, but left runners at second and third in the
inning when Bradley Hendrix, the fourth Tigers pitcher, struck out Bryant.
Auburn threatened in the
fifth, but Hull
wriggled out of danger by striking out the Tigers' junior All-American Mike
Bianucci looking and then getting Fletcher to fly out to center with the bases
loaded.
The Tigers got a run back in the sixth thanks to a pair of Troy errors. Hull
hit Cunningham to open the inning and, after getting Patterson to fly out, got
Hall to hit a hard grounder to Brett Henry at third. The sure double-play ball
went through Henry's legs into left, giving Auburn
life. After another fly out, Tony Caldwell hit a sharp grounder to short that
Bryant let get past him, scoring Cunningham from third.
Troy
answered again in the seventh when Brooks hit his second homer of the night.
This blast, his eighth of the year, went to center off Auburn
left-hander Evan Crawford. But, like in several other innings, the Trojans let
a chance at a big frame slip away by leaving two runners on base.
The Trojans finished the night with 17 hits off six Auburn pitchers. In addition to Brooks' three hits, Felix
and Pierce also had three hits in the game while Miller, Henry and Kelley had
two each.
The Trojans will continue on their 11-game road trip this
weekend with a three-game Sun Belt Conference series at Middle Tennessee. The
series will open Friday night at 6 p.m. All three games will be broadcast on
the Troy/ISP Sports Network.
