Hartzog Shines in Troy Debut, Trojans Run-Rule SIU-Edwardsville in Finale

Sunday, February 18

Troy, Ala.

11 a.m.

Troy University

3-1

SIUE

1-3

SIU-Edwardsville

Troy

Hartzog Shines in Troy Debut, Trojans Run-Rule SIU-Edwardsville in Finale

2/18/2024 2:28:00 PM | Baseball

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By: Troy Athletics Communications

TROY, Ala. – Clete Hartzog tossed five shutout innings in his Troy debut, and the Trojans hit three home runs in an 11-0 victory over SIU-Edwardsville in seven innings at Riddle-Pace Field in the series finale on Sunday.

Hartzog, a transfer from Florida, yielded just one hit and struck out seven before turning the ball over to Colton Walls and Ryan Pettys out of the bullpen, who closed out the shutout for the Trojans (3-1).

At the dish, Will Butcher continued his monster weekend with a grand slam, his sixth double of the weekend and five RBIs, which pushed his weekend RBI tally to 15. The Trojan first baseman slugged 1.125 for the weekend and reached base at a .619 clip.

Butcher's grand slam in the third inning was Troy's first hit of the game and came after a hit by pitch and two walks from SIU-E starter Spencer Stearns, who allowed seven runs – four earned – on four hits in four innings of work.

The Trojans tacked on three more runs in the fourth on a two-run double from Kole Myers and a Butcher double after a Cougar (1-3) error kept the frame alive.

In the fifth, Kyle Mock and Aidan Gilroy hit their first home runs of the season, both 2-run shots to put the Trojans up 11-0 and invoke the run rule after Walls and Pettys threw up zeros in the sixth and seventh innings.

Troy scored 50 runs on the weekend in only 30 innings worth of offensive at-bats. Myers scored 11 times after drawing seven walks and reaching base in 15 of his 21 plate appearances.

Troy hits the road on Tuesday for a mid-week tilt at Florida A&M; first pitch is set for 3 p.m.

Quotable – Head Coach Skylar Meade
"Across the board on all levels – defense good, offense came out and continued to do our thing, but first and foremost Clete coming out and giving us our first quality start. All of his pitches in the strike zone, great tempo, a lot of conviction and obviously great stuff, too. We needed that, and I thought we played to our standard and our level in which we're capable of against a team that played us incredibly tough all weekend."

Notable
• Troy hit three home runs on Sunday, its second straight game with three homers after hitting one in each of the first two games.

• The shutout was Troy's first since a 10-0 victory over Florida A&M on March 22, 2023.

• Will Butcher drove in 15 runs during Troy's four-game series against SIU-Edwardsville and recorded multiple hits in each of the final three games of the series.

• Kole Myers and Will Butcher recorded hits in all four games of the opening series.

• Troy hit 17 doubles, two triples and eight home runs in the four-game series, good for a .714 slugging percentage as a team. Additionally, Troy worked 29 walks and was hit by seven pitches. The Trojans reached base at a .494 clip and finished the weekend with a 1.208 OPS as a unit.

• Troy's pitching staff did not allow a run over the final 13 innings of the series and yielded just two hits with 14 strikeouts during that stretch.

• Troy did not make an error in Sunday's finale, snapping a streak of seven straight games with an error dating back to last season. The Trojans are 8-2 the last two seasons when playing error-free baseball.