Trojans Fall To MTSU 13-9

Saturday, April 17

Troy, Ala.

6:00 pm

Troy University

Middle Tennessee

4/18/2010 3:00:00 AM | Baseball

Troy baseball coach Bobby Pierce was faced with an impossible decision in the sixth inning of the Trojans' 13-9 loss to Middle Tennessee Saturday evening at Riddle-Pace Field.

Holding a 9-8 lead, freshman Thomas Austin (3-1) loaded the bases with Blue Raiders on a hit and two walks. Another freshman, left-hander Shane McCain, came on to pitch and, after getting an out, had to face All-American Bryce Brentz.

In just his second game back from an ankle injury, Brentz had already driven in three runs with a single in the first and a double in the second. He got a fastball from McCain on the first pitch and crushed it over the wall in the left for a grand slam.

“They got the big hit by Brentz on a pitch we didn't want to make, chest high,” Pierce said. “He is the preseason player of the year for a reason, but he will chase the ball down. That is where we were trying to get it.”

With the loss, the Trojans fall to 18-17 overall and 5-9 in Sun Belt play. MTSU improved to 21-14 overall and 10-7 in conference play with the win. The two teams will play the third, and deciding, game of the weekend series on Sunday at 1 p.m.

Troy had plenty of chances to battle back after the grand slam, but left runners on base in all nine innings. Of the 13 total left on base by the Trojans, seven were left in scoring position.

“We had a lot of opportunities,” Pierce said. “They took some from us and gave us others. They made a lot of errors and we made more errors than we are used to. It was a strange game because there were a lot of runs scored early, but not very many late. I am disappointed because we couldn't muster up any runs when we had a lot of run-scoring opportunities late in the game.”

Hunter Dawson (3-0) was the third of five MTSU pitchers in the game and earned the victory. He allowed just one hit and struck out five in 2.2 innings of work. Daniel Palo came on with two Trojans on base in the ninth and got the last two outs to earn his first save.

MTSU jumped out to a big early lead off Trojans starter Tyler Ray. The Blue Raiders got three in the first thanks to a hit batter, a walk and two singles, and four in the second. The two-run double by Brentz was followed by a two-run homer from Tyler Burnett.

Troy answered the early MTSU challenge with a big second inning of its own. After a Steven Felix homer in the first off Blue Raiders starter Chad Edwards, the Trojans scored seven in the second off Edwards and reliever Kevin Whittaker to take an 8-7 lead.

Adam Bryant had a two-run double to get things started in the second. That was followed by an RBI double from Felix, a run-scoring single from Chase Whitley and a three-run homer from T.J. Rivera.

Troy added a run in the third on a solo homer by Bryant, but that was the end of the scoring for the Trojans.

Troy left the bases loaded in the fourth when Daniel Peterson hit a deep fly to center that was caught by the wall. The Trojans left seven more on base through the rest of the game. Two other times in the game – a Blake Martz shot in the sixth and a Ryan Ditthardt ball to end the seventh – the Trojans hit balls to right that looked like they would be off the wall to drive in runs, but both were caught by a leaping Justin Guidry.

Bryant and Todd McRae had three hits each to lead Troy, which had 13 hits in the game. Felix, Whitley and Ditthardt added two hits each. Brentz had three hits and drove in seven to lead MTSU. The Blue Raiders, who had 12 hits in the game, also got two hits each from Guidry and Drew Robinson.

The Trojans will send junior right-hander Drew Hull to the mound on Sunday to square off with MTSU junior right-hander Eric Gilley in the deciding game of the series.