Trojans Crush High Point 17-3 in Season Opener

Friday, February 18

Riddle-Pace Field

6:00 pm

Troy University

High Point University

Blake Martz drove in seven runs for the Trojans on Friday night.

Trojans Crush High Point 17-3 in Season Opener

2/18/2011 9:50:05 PM | Baseball

Box Score

By: Ricky Hazel

FINAL BOX SCORE (PDF) | FINAL BOX SCORE (HTML) | PHOTO GALLERY

The only thing the new bats mandated for use in 2011 did for the Troy baseball team in the Trojans' season opener was keep the ball in the ball park.

The Trojans, however, hammered it all over the park against five High Point pitchers in rolling to a 17-3 season-opening victory over the Panthers in front of 1,457 fans at Riddle-Pace Field.

The teams will return to action on Saturday with a double-header starting at 1 p.m.

Lost amid the Trojans' 16-hit offensive night was the work on the mound of junior right-hander Tyler Ray (1-0). After surrendering a run in the first inning by walking the leadoff hitter of the season and then allowing a two-out RBI double to Steve Antolik, Ray slammed the door on the Panthers.

The Hoover native worked six innings to get the victory, allowing just the one run on one hit while striking out five. He retired the Panthers in order in the second, fifth and sixth innings.

“Tyler pitched like we expected he would tonight,” Trojans coach Bobby Pierce said. “He got off to a little bit of a shaky start, but settled down and stayed in control the rest of the way.”

Ray said he did have some jitters for his first opening day start, but he quickly put those behind him.

“I have to admit that I had some jitters going out there for opening day, but I was able to settle down pretty quickly,” Ray said.

Offensively, the Trojans battered High Point starting pitcher Cody Allen (0-1) for eight runs on 10 hits in just four innings of work. All-American shortstop Adam Bryant set the tone for the night when he led off the game for the Trojans with a double off the wall in center on the first pitch he saw.

“Adam had a great night and he really got us going right from the start,” Pierce said. “There were a lot of guys, up and down the lineup, who had productive games at the plate.”

The most productive hitter for Troy was junior designated hitter Blake Martz who had four hits in five trips to the plate and drove in a career-high seven runs.

“Everyone was really pumped up tonight for the first game of the season and it just turned out to be my night,” Martz said. “I got some good pitches to hit and I was able to take advantage of that. You have to give a lot of credit to the guys who were hitting in front of me for getting on base.”

The Trojans scored runs in bunches all night. Troy plated three in the first and added two in the second. After a scoreless third inning, the Trojans added three runs in the fourth, four in the fifth and five in the sixth inning.

Besides Martz and Bryant, who finished with three hits, including a pair of doubles, the Trojans got two hits each from Tyler Hannah and Daniel Peterson. Hannah and T.J. Rivera drove in three runs apiece in the game.

Following Ray's strong outing, junior Garrett McHenry and sophomore Chris Fisher made their Troy debuts with scoreless innings of work on the mound. Only sophomore Cass Abercrombie struggled, allowing two run in the ninth before closing out the game.

High Point managed just five hits in the game, all from different players. Zach Tessier and Drew Geissinger drove in the late runs for the Panthers.