Cajuns Stop Troy In SBC Opener, 6-1

LAFAYETTE, La. ? When Troy defeated Louisiana-Lafayette during the regular season, it was junior right-hander Jeff Green that gave the Trojans a strong outing on the mound for the win.

Troy tried to recapture that magic on Wednesday night at M.L. “Tigue” Moore Field in the first round of the Sun Belt Conference tournament by sending Green back to the hill. Green had another good outing, but was outmatched by the Cajuns' senior ace Hunter Moody in a 6-1 ULL victory.

The loss drops the Trojans (32-25) into a losers' bracket game on Thursday against UNO, a 14-2 loser to South Alabama on Wednesday. ULL (29-27) will face the Jaguars at 4 p.m. on Thursday.

The SBC tournament got off to a strange start, with three of the four lower seeds winning on the first day. Only regular season league champion ULM, who scored six runs in the bottom of the ninth to beat Middle Tennessee 8-7, won among the higher seeds. Western Kentucky opened the tournament with a 9-0 victory over Florida Atlantic.

The Cajuns got on the board in the top of the first thanks to a rare Troy error. Freshman shortstop Adam Bryant made a low throw into the dugout on a grounder by Tyler Benzel, allowing Benzel to advance to second with two outs. Scott Hawkins followed with a single to left, scoring the run.

ULL added to its lead in the third when Hawkins delivered another two-out single, this time scoring Josh Logan, who led off the inning with a hit, from second.

Green (2-6) left after working five innings, allowing the two runs on seven hits while striking out six.

Moody (9-2) scattered just seven hits in the complete game effort. He allowed just one run while striking out six. He did not walk a batter, but hit three.

"Moody is a great pitcher and he is even better in big games," Troy head coach Bobby Pierce said. "He's beat us five times in his career. You have to tip your cap. It was a great performance, by a great pitcher. It was definitely Hunter Moody's night."

The Trojans finally broke through against Moody in the sixth inning, stringing together consecutive one-out hits from Michael Precise and Brett Henry before Trevor Tyre hit a slow roller toward third that escaped the bare-handed grab of third baseman Benzel, allowing Precise to score.

The inning came to a dramatic end for Troy, however, when Beau Brooks grounded into a 3-6-1 double play, with a sprawling Moody fielding the return throw from shortstop William Long while managing to keep his foot on the bag.

That play kept momentum on the Cajuns' side and they carried into the next inning, getting two one-out singles before Nolan Gisclair launched a 2-2 fastball from Troy sophomore Tim Wheeler over the wall in left for a three-run homer.

Wheeler worked two innings in relief of Green, allowing three runs on four hits while striking out three.

"We got exactly what we wanted from Jeff tonight," Pierce said. "He gave us good, solid innings."

ULL added an insurance run in the eighth off Troy senior Neal Jordan. Goulas and Banzel set the stage with consecutive two-out hits before Hawkins pounded one into the ground in front of the plate that bounced over Henry's head at third and into left for an RBI single. It was Hawkins' fourth hit of the game and third RBI.

One of the lone bright spots in the game for the Trojans was the fact that senior Bryan Miller extended his hitting streak to 24 games with a leadoff double in the eighth inning. It was Miller's NCAA leading 100^th hit of the season and also his national best 32^nd double.

"I was glad to see Miller keep his hit streak, especially with a double," Pierce said. "We know what we have to do now. We have to keep winning if we want to keep playing."
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Troy University Athletics

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