Trojans Roll Past Arkansas State

Friday, April 7

Jonesboro, Ark.

6 p.m.

Troy University

22-10, 6-5

Arkansas State

9-18, 1-8

Troy

Arkansas State

4/7/2023 10:23:00 PM | Baseball

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By: Troy Athletics Communications

JONESBORO, Ark. – Dominating performances on the mound from Logan Ross and Zach Fruit, as well as big hits from various Trojans, help lead Troy to an 8-1 victory over Arkansas State to secure the series from Jonesboro Friday night.

Troy (22-10, 6-5) saw Caleb Bartolero, Kole Myers, and Donovan Whibbs all finish with multiple RBIs. Whibbs went three for three with a home run, three RBIs, and a run scored. Myers hit his eighth home run of the season, driving in two. Tremayne Cobb Jr. went 3-4 with a triple in the victory.

The Trojans flexed their muscle in the top of the eighth, scoring four runs to break the game open as Whibbs hit his second home run of the week bringing in two, and Myers followed three batters later with his two-run shot to make it 8-1 where it would finish an inning later.

It was a difficult night for the Red Wolves (9-18, 1-8), scoring runs as they were 1-17 with runners in scoring position, with their lone run coming in the bottom of the fifth off of a wild pitch. Troy went on to strike out 15 Red Wolves in the ball game.

Making his first start in little over a year and only third career start, Ross pitched 3.1 solid innings allowing only three hits with no runs and five strikeouts. Following Ross was Zach Fruit (5-1), who came in and picked up his team-leading fifth win of the season after going 4.2 innings, allowing one run on three hits while striking out nine. Ross became the eighth different starting pitcher to start a game the Trojans have gone on to win this year.

Arkansas State starter Austin Brock (0-1) only managed to get two outs as the Trojans knocked him out of the ballgame in his first start of the year after 32 pitches. Brock gave up a hit and walked three batters in the first frame allowing two runs to score.

With two outs in the first inning, Sullivan doubled, allowing the inning to continue, which saw a hit-by-pitch and three walks to score two Troy runs. Bartolero and Whibbs had patient at-bats to each get an RBI.

Two more runs in the third extended the lead for the Trojans as two straight singles put runners on the corners and brought up Shane Lewis, who singled himself for his conference-leading 45^th RBI of the season. Then, it was Bartolero again with a sacrifice fly to bring in Kyle Mock for the game's fourth run.

A leadoff walk came around to score for the Red Wolves' first run of the ball game in the bottom of the fifth. The host looked to cut into the Trojan lead, but a spectacular diving catch in left-center field by Lewis ended the inning, stranding a runner in scoring position as that was all the scoring they managed for the game.

With two more hits tonight and two runs scored, Mock continues to reach base. Mock has now reached base safely in 18 straight games setting a new career high, while Myers is at 15 and Bartolero is at 10 consecutive games.

The Trojans will look for their second Sun Belt series sweep of the season as the Trojans and Red Wolves wrap up their series tomorrow, Saturday, April 8, at 1 p.m.