No. 17 Troy Drops Series Finale to Marshall in Extra Innings

Sunday, March 30

Troy, Ala.

12 p.m.

Troy University

21-8, 6-3

Marshall

13-15, 3-6

Marshall

Troy

No. 17 Troy Drops Series Finale to Marshall in Extra Innings

3/30/2025 5:42:00 PM | Baseball

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By: Troy Athletics Communications

TROY, Ala. - No. 17 Troy fell to Marshall 6-5 in 11 innings in Sunday's series finale at Riddle-Pace Field.

It was Troy's first extra inning game of the season, as Marshall scored five runs in the eighth inning to fight its way back into the ballgame. Troy led 4-0 entering the frame, but Colby Frieda followed his 1-2-3 seventh inning with a pair of walks to start the eighth. Troy turned to Luke Lyon, and Marshall would record back-to-back singles off of the senior before Jay Dill entered the ballgame. Dill struck out the first batter he faced, but issued a three-run homer to DH Ethan Murdoch which put the Thundering Herd ahead.

Troy got the run back in the bottom of the frame, as Jason Hawkins reached on an error with the bases loaded and two outs to score Harrison Bowman. Bowman and Gavin Schrader had led off the inning with back-to-back hit by pitches before Dillon Kuehl moved them over on a bunt. Mike Bello hit an infield popup for the second out before Jakob Wax's walk to load the bases. After Hawkins reached on the error, Troy stranded the bases loaded on a Steven Meier strikeout.

Dill pitched a clean ninth inning, and the Trojans had a chance to walk it off in the ninth but stranded the bases loaded. Grayson Stewart put Marshall down 1-2-3 top of the tenth before Thundering Herd reliever Nicholas Weyrich allowed just one hit in the bottom of the frame, bringing Stewart back out for the 11th.

Stewart retired the first two hitters before allowing his first hit on a single by catcher Nolan Wilson. Stewart rolled a ground ball to shortstop to the next hitter, but a throw in the dirt extended the inning. Marshall's leadoff man Jackson Halter singled through the left side to give them the lead before the Trojans went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 11th.

Troy got off to a fast start in the first inning with an RBI single from Brooks Bryan and a two-run double by Schrader. Meier hit an RBI double in the fifth inning to give the Trojans a 4-0 lead, as the right-handed duo of Adam Falinski and Noah Thigpen were dominant on the mound.

Falinski made his fifth start of the season, and his first in Sun Belt play, going 4.0 scoreless innings, allowing two hits and two walks with three strikeouts. Thigpen followed with 2.0 scoreless innings in relief, holding the Thundering Herd to one hit and picking up a pair of strikeouts.

Troy moves to 21-8 on the season and 6-3 in the Sun Belt Conference after taking the series 2-1 from Marshall (13-15, 3-6 SBC).

Quick Hitters

Sunday's loss was Troy's first extra inning game of the season.
Troy is 14-3 at Riddle-Pace Field this season.
Troy is 6-3 in games decided by one run.
Troy is 13-1 when leading after the seventh inning.
Steven Meier extended his on-base streak to 35 games dating back to last season, going 1-for-4 with a double, two HBPs, an RBI and a stolen base.
Meier's stolen base was his 16th of the season. He entered the day as the Sun Belt leader with 15 stolen bases.
Brooks Bryan played first base for the first time in his college career. He played two games at first base with the Leesburg Lightning of the Florida Collegiate Summer League in 2023.
Bryan recorded an RBI single in the first inning, bringing his season RBI total to 43. He entered the day as the Sun Belt leader with 42 RBIs.
Harrison Bowman extended his hitting streak and on-base streak to eight games, going 2-for-5 with a double.
Gavin Schrader hit a two-run RBI double in the first inning. He's recorded at least one RBI in each of his last four games.
Shane Lewis started at designated hitter, his first start since March 8. Lewis missed 11 games due to injury before pinch-hitting in the first two games of the series against Marshall.
Dillon Kuehl extended his on-base streak to eight games, recording a hit by pitch.
Adam Falinski made his fifth start of the season and his first at Riddle-Pace Field. He had started midweek games at Auburn, Mississippi State, Alabama and Jacksonville State.

Falinski held Marshall to two hits in four scoreless innings, which is the fewest hits he's allowed in a start this season.

Quotables - Head Coach Skylar Meade

On the loss..

"We just have to execute. The game gives you outs. Your job is to take the outs. If we respect the 27 (outs), we walk away with a win. We didn't respect the 27. We got sloppy, and the game bites you for not being able to have the mental bandwidth to execute."

On Adam Falinski's performance…

"I thought he was really, really good. His stuff looked off the charts to me, with just the eye test and the reaction of the hitters. I thought he looked like he was in complete control. That's really all you can ask for. He had thrown 34 pitches on Wednesday, so we weren't going to let him above any threshold, so that's why we got him out of there at 64 pitches. You don't want to run the risk with a high leverage arm like that, but he was really, really good."

Next Up

Troy is back at Riddle-Pace Field with a 12 p.m. game against Florida A&M on Wednesday before embarking on a seven-game road trip to Virginia with a three-game series at Old Dominion, a midweek game at Virginia Tech and a three-game series at James Madison.