Troy Earns 42nd Win in 2011

Friday, May 27

Monroe, LA

7:00 p.m.

Troy University

Western Kentucky University

Photo by: Sun Belt Conference

5/27/2011 11:43:47 PM | Baseball

By: Taylor Bryan

BOX SCORE

MONROE, La. – No. 21 Troy closed out the Sun Belt Baseball Championship with a 4-2 win over Western Kentucky on Friday night.

The Trojans (42-17) knew going into Thursday's win over Florida Atlantic that they had been eliminated from championship contention in the new pool play format, but still had the task in front of them of improving their NCAA Tournament resume in hopes of gaining an at-large bid.

They accomplished the first step with a 9-6 win over Florida Atlantic on Thursday, then improved to 2-1 in pool A action on Friday.

WKU (33-24) got on the board in the second inning on a ground out by Ryan Huck. The grounder to second allowed Logan Robbins to cross the plate for the 1-0 lead. Robbins had reached on a single and went to third on a double by Ryan Hutchison that went to the wall in right.

Logan Pierce singled to start the fourth inning, then he moved to second on a balk by WKU starter Justin Hageman. The sophomore went to third on a single by Ali Knowles to mark the third straight inning that the Trojans had two runners on.

This time the Trojans converted as Workman singled to drive home Pierce. On the play the ball was thrown away by WKU's Robbins allowing Knowles to move to third. He then scored on a grounder to second by Tyler Hannah one pitch later for a 2-1 Troy lead.

The Toppers were able to tie the game when they loaded the bases on the back of a single, walk and a hit batter in the fifth inning. Garrett McHenry then proceeded to hit Matt Rice and force home a run that knotted the game. That was the last batter for McHenry, who exited for Shane McCain.

McCain proceeded to get Kes Carter to ground weakly to Pierce, who threw home to record the force out. He followed up by inducing an infield pop up to Hannah, then a ground out to Rivera at second to escape with the score tied.

Rivera led-off the fifth inning with a single then moved all the way to third after WKU reliever GJ Strauss threw a pick-off attempt into the corner for a two-base error. Rivera later scored when Boone Shear lifted a sacrifice fly into left for the 3-2 Troy advantage.

The Trojans tacked on some insurance in the seventh inning on a RBI double by Hayden Hillyer that plated Shear. The run pushed the Troy advantage to two runs, 4-2.

Ryan Sorce pitched three innings after getting the start, but gave way to six Trojan relievers who finished out the victory. McCain (2-2) got the win after two innings of perfect relief.

Tyson Workman pitched the ninth inning, the first outing since his 148-pitch performance against South Alabama on May 21. He notched his fourth save by striking out a pair. He also had three hits at the plate.

Troy will now wait until Monday's 11:30 a.m. announcement of the NCAA tournament field. Stay tuned to TroyTrojans.com for the latest on the Trojans' postseason run.