Troy Shuts Out Florida Atlantic 9-0

Sunday, April 29

Troy, Ala.

1:00 p.m.

Troy University

Florida Atlantic

Ryan Brady

Photo by: Kevin Glackmeyer

4/29/2012 4:34:00 PM | Baseball

By: Adam Prendergast

BOX SCORE

TROY, Ala. – Ryan Brady and Nate Hill combined to shutout Florida Atlantic for the first time in its Sun Belt Conference history Sunday afternoon as Troy defeated FAU 9-0 to hand the Owls their first Sun Belt series loss of the season.

Brady worked the game's first six innings and scattered six hits around four strikeouts and a walk to pick up his first win of the season. Hill took over on the mound with a 1-0 lead in the seventh inning. He retired the first four batters and the last five batters he faced around a pair of singles for his third save of the year. Florida Atlantic joined the league in 2007 and had played 165 regular season league games before Sunday's shutout at the hands of Troy; the last time FAU was shutout in a conference game came in 2001 in an 11-0 loss to Georgia State in Atlantic Sun play.

Troy (20-24, 8-13 Sun Belt) broke open a scoreless game in the fourth thanks to some help from the Florida Atlantic (26-17, 14-5) defense. Logan Pierce legged out an infield single to open the frame and took third on a throwing error by Owl third baseman Kyle Newton on the play. Troy's leading RBI producer Boone Shear drove in his 43rd run of the season with a single to right to plate Pierce.

Tyler Vaughn capped an impressive weekend with a screaming line-drive double to the wall in left field to score Danny Collins with one out in the seventh to give Troy a 2-0 lead. Vaughn finished the weekend 6-for-12 with a pair of doubles and numerous spectacular plays at second base.

Shear and Vaughn both finished with two hits to lead Troy offensively. All nine players in the Troy lineup had a hit, scored a run or drove in a run in the game.

Jo-El Bennett put a dagger in the hearts of the Owl dugout three pitches later with a booming home run over the wall in left field to give the Trojans a 4-0 advantage.

A dip into the Florida Atlantic did not stop the bleeding as Gregg Bennis hit Brandon Brown and Clay Holcomb in succession. The pair moved into scoring position with steals on back-to-back pitches and Brown scored on a passed ball by Mike Albaladejo. Holcomb put the Trojans in front 6-0 scoring on a sac fly from Tyler Hannah to cap the five-run frame.

Shear and Collins led off the eighth inning with back-to-back doubles to extend the lead to 7-0. Collins came around to score on a Florida Atlantic fielding error with Vaughn at the plate. Ali Knowles, who took over for Bennett in left field in the eighth, roped a double in the gap in right-center field to drive in Vaughn and cap the scoring for the Trojans.

Florida Atlantic had a one-out extra-base hit in the first, third and fourth innings, but each time Brady was able to work out of trouble. Robert Buckly, Corey Keller and Mark Nelson had had two hits for the Owls which accounted for six of their eight hits in the game.

Austin Gomber (3-3) was charged with the loss for Florida Atlantic had he allowed four runs – three earned – on six hits over 6.1 innings; he struck out five and walked one. The Owl bullpen was tagged for five runs in just 1.2 innings of work.

The Trojans travel to Birmingham, Ala., on Tuesday for a non-conference game at Samford before traveling to Lafayette, La., over the weekend for a three-game Sun Belt Conference series at Louisiana-Lafayette.