Late Inning Collapse Costs Trojans at JSU

Tuesday, March 23

Jacksonville, Ala.

6:30 pm

Troy University

Jacksonville State

3/24/2010 5:00:00 AM | Baseball

JACKSONVILLE, Ala. – For more than seven innings on Tuesday night, Troy junior Drew Hull held complete control over Jacksonville State.

But, after Hull got the first out in the eighth inning with the Trojans leading JSU 3-1, the wheels fell off. JSU proceeded to bat around, scoring six runs to spoil Hull's effort and steal a 7-3 win from the Trojans.

Troy falls to 8-11 on the year with the loss while JSU evened its season record at 10-10.

“You have to give Jacksonville State credit because Drew was pitching a great game,” Trojans coach Bobby Pierce said. “His pitch count was still low going into the eighth inning, he was pitching well and our bull pen was a little wiped out, so it was an easy decision to leave him in.”

When Hull struck out Jake Sharrock to start the eighth inning, it was the 15th consecutive Gamecocks hitter he had retired and the fourth straight that had gone down on strikes. From there the wheels came off for Hull and the Trojans.

Blake Seguin drew a four pitch walk from Hull and then advanced to third when pinch hitter Jay Davis singled to center and Troy's Steven Rosado misplayed the ball. Todd Cunningham followed with a double to the gap in left.

After Bert Smith fouled out to right, Sam Eberle delivered a two-run single through the left side of the Troy infield to give Jacksonville State a 4-3 lead. Kyle Bluestein followed with a run-scoring triple to center on a ball Rosado got to but couldn't hang on to, ending the night for Hull.

Bart Pettus came on in relief and surrendered consecutive RBI singles, with a throwing error mixed in, before getting Sharrock on strikes to end the inning.

Hull, who fell to 1-4 on the year with the loss, wound up allowing six runs on eight hits over a career-high 7.2 innings. He walked just one and struck out a career-high nine.

The Trojans had plenty of scoring chances early in the game, but hit into four double plays on the night.

After JSU scored a run in the third on a triple to left by Seguin that should have been caught and a ground out, got two in the fourth off Gamecocks starter Kevin Elwell. T.J. Rivera drove in the first run on a one out single to score Ryan Ditthardt, who had doubled, and then came in to score on a wild pitch.

Troy got another run, this one unearned, in the sixth off JSU reliever Tanner Freshour (1-1) thanks to two of the four Gamecocks errors in the game. Freshour worked 3.1 innings and allowed just the one unearned run while not allowing a hit.

The Trojans did not get a hit in the game after the fourth inning and had just seven on the night. Ditthardt, Rivera and Shohei Fujita had two hits each for the Trojans.

Cunningham had three hits to lead JSU while Eberle had two.

“We had a lot of opportunities to score early in the game, but hit into way too many double plays,” Pierce said.

The Trojans will be back in action this weekend at Riddle-Pace Field when they host the Brown Bears from the Ivy League in a four-game series. The teams will play a day-night double-header on Saturday with start times set for 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. Sunday will feature a single game at 1 p.m. The series will conclude on Monday with a single game at 3 p.m.