Troy Rally Falls Short in 7-6 Loss To Hogs

Sunday, February 28

Fayetteville, Ark.

1:00 pm

Troy University

Arkansas

Troy Rally Falls Short in 7-6 Loss To Hogs

2/28/2010 9:00:00 PM | Baseball

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The Troy Trojans came into Sunday's series finale at Arkansas looking to continue the aggressive play they showed in falling to the 16th-ranked team in the nation on Saturday.

The host Razorbacks snuffed out any planned aggressiveness from the Trojans by plating two runs in the first and five more in the second against Troy senior starter Andrew Dickinson (1-1), but Dickinson settled down and gave Troy a chance later in the game in a 7-6 loss.

Arkansas improved to 5-1 overall with the win while the Trojans fell to 3-4 with their fourth straight loss.

“We fought back, which was good, but we gave up too much early in the game,” Trojans coach Bobby Pierce said. “Give them credit because we had a chance to take the lead in the seventh and their pitchers made the pitches they needed to prevent us from scoring.”

Junior Andy Wilkins, who was a thorn in the Trojans' side all weekend, had key hits in both of the first two innings. His single in the first got the Razorbacks on the board and his three-run double in the second blew the game open.

Dickinson, however, settled down after the rough start. He retired seven straight on ground balls through the next two-plus innings and retired a total of 11 straight Arkansas hitters, holding the Hogs at bay and giving Troy a chance to get back into the game.

That chance came in the fifth inning when the Trojans finally got their first hit off Arkansas junior Sam Murphy, who came on in relief of starter Brett Eibner (2-0) to start the fourth. That first hit, off the bat of Ryan Ditthardt, drove in Troy's second run.

After Chase Whitley followed Ditthardt with a single to load the bases, T.J. Rivera clubbed a grand slam into the Razorbacks bullpen in left, closing the Hogs' lead to 7-6.

Troy had a chance to go in front in the seventh inning when the Trojans again loaded the bases with one out. Things were different the second time around as Arkansas sophomore left-hander Geoffrey Davenport struck out Ditthardt and got Whitley to fly out to center to end the threat.

D.J. Baxendale came on to work a perfect ninth for his second save in as many days as Arkansas completed the sweep.

Arkansas, which had just one hit after the second inning, was led by Wilkins and Tim Carver with two hits each. Rivera had two of the Trojans' five hits in the game to lead Troy.

The Trojans are scheduled to return to action on Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m. when they take-on long-time rival Jacksonville State at Rudy Abbott Field in Jacksonville.