Trojans Fall Short In Game 2

Saturday, February 27

Fayetteville, Ark.

1:00 pm

Troy University

Arkansas

2/27/2010 11:30:00 PM | Baseball

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Despite hitting four home runs on the day, the Troy Trojans could never muster quite enough offense to keep pace with 16th-ranked Arkansas Saturday afternoon, dropping a 10-8 decision to the Razorbacks in the second game of a weekend series.

The Trojans will attempt to prevent an Arkansas sweep on Sunday when the teams meet for the final time at Baum Stadium at 1 p.m.

In front of the largest crowd (5,764) to ever witness a Troy baseball game, the Trojans out-hit and out-homered the Razorbacks, but were never able to completely overcome Arkansas' five-run third inning off freshman starting pitcher Shane McCain (1-1).

“We showed today that we will compete for nine innings, and that is what I was looking for,” Troy coach Bobby Pierce said. “We got behind early, but we never stopped competing. We have a good club, and if we will compete like that all year we will be fine.”

The Trojans (3-3) got on the board in the first inning for the second straight day, but missed out on a chance to score more than one run. Chad Watson and Adam Bryant opened the game with back-to-back singles and the Trojans loaded the bases when Ryan Ditthardt drew a one-out walk.

Chase Whitley followed with a fly ball into shallow right that was misplayed by Jarrod McKinney, allowing Watson to score, but Arkansas starter Drew Smyly struck out the next two Troy hitters to end the threat. Smyly, who lasted just four innings, struck out eight.

Arkansas (4-1) answered off McCain, getting a two-run, two-out single up the middle from Zack Cox in the home half of the first to take the lead.

Another error by McKinney in the third allowed the Trojans to score an earned run, briefly knotting the score, but Arkansas got a two-run homer from Andy Wilkins and a three-run shot from Brett Eibner in the bottom of the inning to take a 7-2 lead.

Troy got two runs back in the fourth when T.J. Rivera blasted a two-run homer, Arkansas came right back with three in the bottom of the inning to chase McCain. Cox again delivered with two-out, hitting a two-run homer, and James McCann, who reached on an error, scored on a single by Tim Carver.

Junior Drew Hull came on in relief of McCain and slammed the door on the Razorbacks, who did not score again in the game. Hull tied his career-high, striking out five in 3.1 innings of work while allowing just one hit.

With Hull in command on the mound, the Trojans started chipping away. Back-to-back homers from Chase Whitley, a two-run shot, and Blake Martz off Jeremy Heatley (1-0) in the fifth cut the deficit to 10-7. Rivera then struck again in the eighth, blasting his second homer of the day, and team-leading fourth of the year, off Arkansas closer D.J. Baxendale.
The Rivera homer seemed to refocus Baxendale, who dominated the next five Troy hitters to earn his first save of the year.

The Trojans out-hit Arkansas 10-9 in the game, with Rivera and Bryant both posting two hits. The negative was that the Arkansas pitchers recorded 12 strikeouts in the game. Cox, who drove in four runs, and Collin Kuhn had two hits apiece to lead Arkansas.

The Trojans will send senior right-hander Andrew Dickinson (1-0) to the mound on Sunday to match-up with Eibner, a senior right-hander. The first pitch is scheduled for 1:05 p.m. and the game will be broadcast on WTBF-FM.