Trojans Roll in Fall Exhibition

BOX SCORES: SEGMENT 1 | SEGMENT 2

The Troy University baseball team had little trouble Sunday afternoon in an exhibition outing against the Ontario Blue Jays, and under 18 travel team.

The Trojans and Blue Jays played a 14-inning exhibition that was divided into two seven-inning segments in order to give as many pitchers and opportunity to work as possible.

Troy combined over the 14 innings to outscore the Blue Jays 21-1, taking the first seven-inning segment 9-0 and the second 12-1. Troy pounded out a total of 28 hits on the day while holding the Blue Jays to nine.

“It was a good day to get out and see another uniform,” Trojans head coach Bobby Pierce said. “The way our fall is set up with intra-squad games all the time, monotony can set in, so it is good to be able to bring in a team like this so that you can see another uniform. It is an exciting day for the players.”

In addition to having success with the bats in hand, the Trojans also got solid pitching from six different hurlers, posting a combined 17 strikeouts with just three walks. The only run the Trojans allowed was on a solo homer, surrendered by freshman Jimmy Hodgskin. It was the only hit Hodgskin allowed over four innings of work.

“We performed pretty well,” Pierce said. “We had a lot of new kids go out and do basically what we have seen them do throughout the fall, but in a more competitive environment.”

In addition to the success for Hodgskin, Troy also got a solid performance from newcomer Ryan Sorce, who allowed just one hit over four inning with five strikeouts. Sophomore Cass Abercrombie was also impressive on the mound, striking out six in just two innings of work.

“I liked the way Cass Abercrombie threw the ball today,” Pierce said. “We had a lot of guys who threw the ball ok today and a lot of guys who swung the bats ok today. Overall, it was a productive day.”

The top offensive performers were junior Josh McDorman and senior Todd McRae. McDorman was 5-for-6 with six RBI on the day while McRae was 5-for-8 with three doubles and an RBI. Junior Tyson Workman battled back from an 0-for-5 in the first segment of the day to go 3-for-3 with two walks, two runs and three RBI in the second.

“McDormand had a very productive day and he has actually gotten the ball off the bat a little bit better than what you saw today,” Pierce said. “He did pick up hits today, but he has been hitting long balls and getting balls in the gap. He had a productive day today.

“Todd has been getting the ball off the bat very well for a few more extra base hits, and that is something he has been working on all summer and fall. I think we will see a better Todd McRae and, behind the plate, he was solid as usual.

The Trojans have two more weeks left of fall practice, and that time will include adjusting to the new bats that will be employed in the spring. The bats are supposed to more closely simulate the performance of wood bats and early results from around the nation indicate that power numbers will decline sharply in the spring.

“We are going to start swinging the new bats that have been down-graded next week, but we still have a long way to go with this club,” Pierce said. “We want to get the new bats into our hands, both from a hitting a pitching standpoint.

“We also want to finish out strong. We have been doing a lot of instructing and we want to let them play and compete a little so that we can figure out what roles guys will play in the spring by how the compete over the rest of the fall.”

Troy University Athletics

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