Troy Takes Series with 11-3 Win

Saturday, April 23

Riddle-Pace Field

6:00 pm

Troy University

Western Kentucky University

Photo by: Edward Fieder

4/23/2011 9:19:39 PM | Baseball

By: Taylor Bryan

BOX SCORE :: PHOTO GALLERY

TROY – The Trojans again knocked off WKU on Saturday night, this time using their bats to do most of the damage in an 11-3 win in Sun Belt action at Riddle-Pace Field.

Troy (29-10, 13-4) got eight extra-base hits including three home runs as they moved further into first place, now three games up on Western Kentucky in the Sun Belt standings.

“We had eight extra base hits tonight,” head coach Bobby Pierce said. “We haven't been able to get that much over the last 10 days or so. That is starting to comeback. We had eight two-out RBI's. That is starting to come back.

“We have just been talking to our team about having the right mindset and approaching the game the right way mentally. They are finally starting to buy into that and starting to see the result from that. Hopefully, this can get us on a good solid roll going forward.”

For the second straight night, Troy got an outstanding performance from its starting pitcher. On Saturday, it was sophomore southpaw Ryan Sorce's turn to shine. The Pace, Fla.-native set career highs for innings pitched (7.0) and pitches (102) and tied his career mark with six strike outs.

“Ryan was outstanding,” Pierce said. “He really threw the ball like he did all through the fall, and then early in the spring that we were ecstatic about. When the season started he wasn't quite as sharp, but he's starting to get all his stuff back. That's coming off a great outing last week too. This week against a good WKU team, he left it all out there.

“He did everything that we could ask. He got in a couple of crunch times and made some quality pitches to get quality outs. I thought he was excellent tonight.”

The effort pushed Sorce to his fourth win of the season, upping his overall record to 4-3.

The Trojans (29-10, 13-4) exploded for six runs in the third inning behind a pair of two run homers from Drew Prichard and Pierce. Troy banged out six hits in the frame while Tyler Hannah and Adam Bryant also had run scoring hits.

Hannah took care of all three outs in top of the first inning, including two on a pair of highlight plays. Hannah speared a liner from Jared Andreoli for the first out and then followed up with a stunning charge, field and throw on a slow roller by Logan Robbins for out number two.

Hannah also had a solo homer in the fourth inning. He scored a run on an RBi double from Bryant in the sixth. Bryant and Rivera each picked up an RBI in the eighth as the Trojans widened their advantage to 11-3.

WKU (25-15, 10-7) plated a run in the seventh, but Sorce struck out Ryan Huck with the bases loaded to end the threat with the Trojans still firmly in command. The Toppers only other offense came in the eighth off reliever Thomas Austin.

Bryant finished the night 4-for-5 with three RBI. Hannah added three hits and two driven in. Pierce (three RBI) and Prichard (2 RBI) also had solid outputs for Troy. Huck and Ryan Hutchison were the only WKU players with multiple hits.

The Trojans look to close out the series with a sweep on Sunday. First pitch is set for 1 pm as freshman Jimmy Hodgskin (2-3, 3.50 ERA) takes the hill on Easter Sunday for Troy against WKU senior Brian Edelen (3-1, 4.23 ERA).