Pierce Slam, Seven RBI, Power Trojans Past Auburn

Tuesday, April 5

Riddle-Pace Field

6:00 pm

Troy University

Auburn University

Photo by: Edward Fieder

Pierce Slam, Seven RBI, Power Trojans Past Auburn

4/5/2011 10:44:41 PM | Baseball

Box Score

By: Ricky Hazel

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Troy head coach Bobby Pierce has been waiting all season for his team to show some life offensively – little did he know that it would be his own son who would provide the spark the Trojans have been looking for.

Sophomore Logan Pierce had four hits, including a grand slam homer in the fifth inning, to help propel the 20th-ranked Trojans to a 14-6 victory Tuesday night at Riddle-Pace Field.

The Trojans improved to 23-5 overall on the year with the victory while dropping the Tigers to 15-14 and earning a split of the season series.

Pierce drove in a single run in the third inning, two more with a double in the fourth and capped his night with the slam in the fifth. Overall, Troy scored 13 of its 14 runs against the Tigers with two outs.

“You have to like that kind of work,” the Trojans' head coach said. “We have been patiently waiting for this kind of offense, not that they haven't been putting the work in, because they have. Baseball is a crazy game and you can't just call it up at any time. It just has to happen. Maybe tonight will get our offense going and give us the confidence we need.”

While Pierce did the bulk of the heavy lifting for the Trojans, every Troy starter had at least one hit and scored at least one run. In addition to the grand slam, Troy had four doubles in the game as well as a triple among their 15 hits.

“We had some great at bats tonight and really did some damage with some extra-base hits,” Pierce said.

Logan Pierce came into the game hitting just .235 on the year with six extra-base hits and 14 RBI, but raised his batting average 32 points and added two doubles to the grand slam.

“I was fortunate enough that some guys got on base and I got some good pitches to hit,” Logan said. “I was finally able to get some good balls off the bat and found some holes to drive those runs in to help us win.”

The offensive production was aided by a strong start on the mound by sophomore Shane McCain (1-1). After taking the loss against Auburn last week despite allowing just one run, McCain held the Tigers to one run on nine hits and worked into the sixth inning to get the victory.

“I thought Shane got better as the game went on,” Coach Pierce said. “When he pitched last Tuesday at Auburn I thought it was similar, even though he didn't have quality command. He gave up a few more hits than he did over there, but he scattered them around and controlled the damage well. He gave us exactly what we needed tonight.”

The Trojans gave McCain a boost by scoring five times in the third innings. Tyler Hannah opened the offensive barrage with a two-out double. Drew Prichard, Blake Martz and Pierce followed with consecutive singles before Todd McRae tripled off the wall in right-center. Daniel Peterson followed with a single to score McRae for a 5-0 lead.

Troy pushed the lead to 7-0 in the fourth when Prichard and Workman singled ahead of Pierce, who doubled to the gap in left center to score them both.

After Auburn scored a single run in the fifth, the Trojans got a boost in their five-run fifth by an error by Auburn's Creede Simpson, who misplayed a fly ball to center. After the Tigers' fourth pitcher, Jay Wade, recorded a pair of strikeouts with a walk in between to load the bases, Pierce delivered the kill shot over the big wall in right on a 3-2 pitch.

“With two strikes you are still in battle mode, looking for a good pitch to hit,” Logan said. “His curveball really wasn't doing much so I was thinking fastball. I got a good fastball to hit and was able to put a good swing on it.”

The Troy coaches were discussing how good a shot off the wall would be in that situation, but Logan did them one better.

“He did get that one nice,” Coach Pierce said. “I looked at Coach (Brad) Phillips when the count went full and we knew the runners would be going and I said this would be a nice time to hit a line drive off the wall. About that time Logan hit it and Coach Phillips said 'or over it' with the ball in flight.

“That was a great at bat in that situation. He was patient when he needed to be patient and he finally got a pitch to hit and delivered it for a grand slam. It was a big moment for him and a big moment for all of us.”

Auburn's Kevin Patterson blasted a three-run homer off Troy's Nathan Hill in the seventh inning, but the Trojans got two of those back in the eighth on a two-out double by T.J. Rivera. The Tigers capped the scoring in the ninth when Brooks Beisner hit a two-run homer off Nick Ward.

Auburn starter Will Irvin (4-2) took the loss for the Tigers. He gave up five runs on eight hits in just 2.2 innings of work.

Both teams had 15 hits in the game. Auburn was led by Bobby Andrews, Dan Gamache and Patterson with two hits each. Behind the four hits for Logan Pierce, the Trojans got two hits each from Adam Bryant, who extended his hitting streak to 16 games, and Martz.

The Trojans won't take much time to celebrate the victory over Auburn with a three-game home series against FIU looming this weekend.

“We'll enjoy this for a couple of hours but we have class tomorrow morning and a long practice scheduled for tomorrow afternoon,” Pierce said. “It is a great win and one that I know all of our guys are proud of. I appreciate the great crowd out here on a cool night. We'll get back to work tomorrow to get ready for a big weekend series against FIU.”

The younger Pierce said he hopes the Trojans' performance against Auburn is the start of something special.

“The sky is the limit for this team,” Logan said. “We have been waiting for the bats to come alive and maybe tonight will be the spark to get us going. From here, maybe we can start beating some people and really start hurting some feelings because we have some good bats on this team. The pitching staff has carried us, but maybe this will be the spark to get the offense going.”

The Trojans will try to carry that spark into Friday's series opener against the Panthers. The first pitch at Riddle-Pace Field is scheduled for 6 p.m.