Trojans Rally Late To Down FIU, 6-5

Sunday, March 8

Miami, Fla.

Noon

Troy University

Florida International

3/8/2009 6:00:00 AM | Baseball

MIAMI, Fla. ? The Troy University Trojans had been waiting for almost three games for someone to get a big hit against a tough FIU pitching staff.

When the big hits started, they came in a hurry as Troy got solo homers from Ryan Ditthardt, Miles Hoyle and Trevor Tyre in the final two innings on Sunday to battle back for a 6-5 victory over FIU.

For the Trojans, who had been held scoreless by FIU pitching for 19 consecutive innings before a Daryl Otwell sacrifice fly in the second on Sunday, the win salvaged the final game of the weekend Sun Belt Conference series.

“This game was so big for us to avoid getting swept by a hot team that was playing with a lot of intensity,” Trojans coach Bobby Pierce said. “We had to work for everything that we got, but I am so proud of the team for hanging in there until the very end.”

Troy is now 8-4 overall on the year and 1-2 in league play while FIU falls to 6-3 overall and 2-1 in the Sun Belt. The Trojans will return to action with a mid-week non-conference series at North Florida on Tuesday and Wednesday. Both games are scheduled to be broadcast on WTBF-FM with broadcast time set for 5:45 p.m.

The Trojans appeared to be on their way to suffering just their second series sweep in four seasons of Sun Belt play, trailing the Panthers and senior starting pitcher Corey Polizzano 5-1 after four innings of play.

“They had outstanding pitching all weekend and today was no exception,” Pierce said. “We were just never able to get much going against them until late in the game today.”

But, the tide started to turn in the sixth inning when Troy plated a pair of runs off Polizzano, who owns two career wins over the Trojans. Bart Pettus was hit by a pitch to leadoff the inning and moved to second on a one-out single by Michael Precise. After a wild pitch advanced both runners, Ditthardt drove in one with a ground ball to second.

After Brett Henry drew a two-out walk, Otwell singled to left to drive in his second run of the game.

Troy continued to trail going to the eighth inning with junior right-hander Eric Berkowitz (0-1) on in relief of Polizzano. Berkowitz had retired the first five Trojans he faced before Ditthardt stepped in with two out in the eighth.

Ditthardt quickly fell behind 0-2 in the count before hitting a hanging breaking ball out deep to left. It was his fifth homer of the year and drew the Trojans to within one run.

After junior Chris Sorce (1-0) worked a quiet bottom of the eighth, Troy came to bat in the ninth needing at least one run to extend the game. The run came on the first pitch from Berkowitz to Hoyle, who was pinch-hitting for Chad Watson, who blasted a homer to center to knot the score at 5-5.

Tyre, who came into the game as a pinch hitter in the seventh, followed two pitches later with a long homer of his own, giving Troy it's first lead of the series.

Sorce came back out to work the ninth and retired the Panthers in order for his first win of the year. He capped a weekend series in which the Troy bullpen worked a total of 8.1 innings without allowing a single run and only five hits.
“We pitched well all weekend as well, and the pen was outstanding,” Pierce said. “Our starters were good in all three games. Tyler (Ray) had some bad luck yesterday and Travis (Burge) gave up some tough-luck runs today.”

For Troy, the win was just the eighth for the Trojans since the start of the 2003 season, and the first this season, in a game when the team trailed after eight innings (8-100). The late-inning comeback also helped the team avoid being swept in a conference opening series for the first time since the 2002 team started play in the Atlantic Sun Conference 0-7.

Following the two games at North Florida this week, the Trojans will return to Riddle-Pace Field for a three-game non-conference series against the LeMoyne Dolphins starting Friday night at 6 p.m.