Trojan Defense Outlasts No. 21 Louisiana

Sunday, March 25

Troy, Ala.

12 PM

Troy University

18-14, 4-5

Louisiana

20-7, 7-2

Louisiana

Troy

3/25/2018 2:55:00 PM | Softball

Box Score

By: Grace Bolin

TROY, Alabama- Long balls from junior Madeline Porter and Kaylee Hussey paired with a top-5 nationally ranked defense, lifted the Trojans (18-14, 4-5 SBC) over No. 21 Louisiana (20-7, 7-2 SBC) 2-1 on Sunday to close the conference series at the Troy Softball Complex.

Troy hurler Annie Willis and Louisiana's pitcher Summer Ellyson duked it out again, as Willis threw a complete game and Ellyson lasted 4.1 innings. It was Willis who earned the win on Sunday, only allowing four hits and one run to cross the plate. With the win, Willis moves to 8-4 on the season with a 1.71 ERA.

A double, bunt single and sacrifice bunt plated a run early for the Cajuns in the top of the first inning, but the powerful Troy defense held them off the plate for the remainder of the game.

Porter led-off the bottom of the second inning with just her second career-home run, both in the last two conference series, to even things up at 1-1.

Neither team could get anything going in the third and fourth innings as another pitcher's duel between Willis and Ellyson, kept the very few baserunners at bay. With one out, Hussey stepped up to the plate and battled with an eight-pitch at-bat. She found her perfect pitch to send one flying over the center field wall, a solo-shot, to give the Trojans the go-ahead run.

Both sides went three up, three down in the sixth and Louisiana battled with a single in the seventh to get a runner on, but Troy pulled through with some great catches to seal the win and hand Louisiana only its second conference loss of the year.

QUOTABLE
"We are trying to build this team around really great pitching and defense and that's what we did today," head coach Beth Mullins said. "We had two long balls and I could not be more proud of our offense just grinding. We hit the ball hard, we win. Annie Willis did an amazing job out there. Our pitchers do a great job of keeping us in the ball game and she came out and threw a better game in the third game than the first. We also played great defense behind her."

"I saw all of us work together as a team," Willis said. "We came out ready to fight today. (Kaylee) Hussey was great behind the plate and I really trusted Coach Jaycee's (Affeldt) pitch calling. I knew that if they (Louisiana) did barrel it, our defense would have it 100 percent."

NOTEWORTHY

With the win, Troy snapped a five-game losing streak.
Katie Webb continues to lead the squad with .376 average at the plate. She and Logan Calhoun are squared up at 38 hits each.
Six Trojans have hit multiple home runs this season, led by Webb with four.

UP NEXT
Troy will continue conference play with a road series against Georgia State on March 30 and 31. Due to Easter Sunday, a single game will be played on Friday at 4 p.m. CT and a doubleheader is set for Saturday at 12 and 2 CT.

For more on Troy softball, visit TroyTrojans.com and follow TroyTrojansSb on Twitter.