Troy Falls in Back-and-Forth Battle at No. 13 Alabama

Wednesday, March 6

Tuscaloosa, Ala.

4 p.m.

Troy University

10-4

Alabama

12-1

Troy

Alabama

Troy Falls in Back-and-Forth Battle at No. 13 Alabama

3/6/2024 8:14:00 PM | Baseball

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By: Troy Athletics Communications

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Troy and No. 13 Alabama traded punches back and forth for nine innings, but the home-standing Crimson Tide survived the heavyweight bout, 8-7, Wednesday evening at Sewell-Thomas Stadium.

Alabama (12-1) answered a two-run Troy (10-4) seventh inning with three of its own in the bottom of the inning after a questionable hit-by-pitch call was not overturned; that run proved to be the difference.

In the seventh, Blake Sutton gave the Trojans a 6-5 lead with a sac fly to the warning track in right field after Brooks Bryan tied the game with an RBI single to center field. It was one of three game-tying plate appearances for Bryan, who finished 2-for-3 with four RBIs.

Ryan Pettys struck out Alabama's leadoff hitter in the bottom of the frame, but Justin Lebron was ruled to be hit by a 1-0 pitch from Pettys, and replay failed to overturn the call. Five pitches later, Bryce Eblin doubled to tie the game, Will Portera plated the go-ahead run on a sac fly and Gage Miller homered for the eventual game-winning run.

Troy had the tying run on base in the eighth after Kole Myers walked, stole second and scored on an Ethan Kavanagh single back up the middle. However, Alton Davis II recorded the final four outs for his second save of the season.

Kavanagh finished with a career-high tying four hits, his eighth multi-hit game of the season, while Myers scored twice and stole his ninth base.

Peyton Watts gave Troy a 4-3 lead in the top of the sixth inning with his second home run in as many games, but the Tide answered with two in their half of the frame.

Alabama built a 3-1 advantage after four innings, with two of the runs coming following costly Troy errors, as both were unearned against starter Garrett Gainous' ledger.

Bryan tied the game in the top of the third with a sac fly, scoring Aidan Gilroy, and again tied the game with a 2-out, 2-run single in the fifth, plating Myers and Kavanagh.

Pettys (0-1) was tagged with the loss for the Trojans after allowing three runs on three hits in 1.1 innings of work to go along with three strikeouts. Braylon Myers (1-0) picked up the win for Alabama, allowing a run and a hit with four strikeouts over 1.1 innings.

Quotable – Troy Head Coach Skylar Meade
"That game was there to be won; it's unfortunate the last few times we've played them, it's been a similar script; thankfully, we get them again later in the year. Hopefully, we'll take the lessons learned from this evening and move forward. I thought we handled a lot of uniqueness, to be politically correct, well throughout the course of the game.

Up Next
Troy travels to Indiana this weekend for a three-game series with Hoosiers (8-4). Troy hosted Indiana for a weekend set in 2022, with the Trojans sweeping the three-game series.

Notable
• Ethan Kavanagh extended his hitting streak to 10 games and his on-base streak to 26 games with his four-hit performance, while Kole Myers extended his on-base streak to 32 games.

• Troy did not hit a double for the second straight game after entering the week ranked fifth in the country in doubles; Troy had hit 36 doubles in the previous 12 games, including seven games with 3-plus doubles.

• Ethan Kavanagh's four-hit game was the second of his career; he was 4-for-4 with three runs scored and three RBIs in Troy's series opener against Georgia Southern last season.

• Alabama has now won seven straight games in the series, the longest winning streak by either school.