Troy’s Clutch Hitting Leads to Game One Win at No. 12 Southern Miss

Friday, March 20

Hattiesburg, Miss.

6 p.m.

Troy University

10-11, 10-11

Southern Miss

17-5, 1-3

Troy

Southern Miss

Troy’s Clutch Hitting Leads to Game One Win at No. 12 Southern Miss

3/20/2026 10:38:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

By: Troy Athletics Communications

HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Troy's clutch two-out hitting and seven strong innings from Benjamin Stubbs lifted the Trojans to a 6-5 win over No. 12 Southern Miss in Friday night's series opener at Pete Taylor Park.

Stubbs, starting a series-opener for the first time this season, gave the Trojans (10-11, 3-1 SBC) a gutsy performance after the Golden Eagles (17-5, 1-3 SBC) scored three runs in the first three innings, with two coming on home runs off the bat of South Alabama transfer Kyle Morrison while Matthew Russo added a sac fly in the first.

The senior left-hander worked seven innings for the third time in his last four starts, allowing five hits and striking out four to two walks. After Morrison's second homer in the third inning, Stubbs worked four straight zeroes, allowing just three baserunners in that span.

Troy pegged USM left-hander Grayden Harris, who beat the Trojans twice as a starter last season, for ten hits and five runs in his 5.1 innings. Jimmy Janicki started the scoring with a three-run homer to dead center in the third, his eighth of the season and fifth in the last six games. Third baseman Josh Pyne tacked on two runs the next inning with a double in the right-center gap.

Troy added some insurance in the seventh, as Blake Cavill beat out an infield single against reliever Colby Allen to score Aaron Piasecki from third. The insurance proved pivotal, as the Golden Eagles tacked on two runs on a Drey Barrett double in the bottom of the eighth, but Cooper Ellingworth responded in his second inning of work with a 1-2-3 ninth to pick up the save.

Notables

Troy's 14 hits were its second most in a game this season.
The ten hits and five runs Troy recorded off starter Grayden Harris were both the most that the Southern Miss lefty has allowed this season.
Troy has used a different starting lineup in all 21 games this season.
Benjamin Stubbs pitched at least six innings for the fourth consecutive start. He's gone seven innings in three of those four games.
Josh Pyne extended his hitting streak to a team-high eight games. He's hitting .400 during that span.
Pyne ripped the 65th double of his career, which is the most among active Division-I players.
Pyne went 3-for-5, picking up his third three-hit game of the season.
Jimmy Janicki extended his hitting streak to six games. He's hitting .444 with five home runs during that span.
Janicki launched his team-high eighth home run of the season, which also ranks second in the Sun Belt. It traveled 418 feet with an exit velocity of 108 MPH.
Janicki went 2-for-5, recording his team-high 12th multi-hit game of the season.
Aaron Piasecki, Blake Cavill, Nolan Book and Sean Darnell each added multi-hit games.

Quotables
Head Coach Skylar Meade
"That's the name of the game. Two-out hitting. When you play over here, it's always a tourney atmosphere. It's two-out hitting, two-out pitching, and playing clean defense. The game really never changes. We have all these different things, analytics and all that stuff. But in the end, can you do things when you need to be clutch?"

Catcher Jimmy Janicki
"Every out felt like a regional game. The stakes were high. It was a great team win."

LHP Benjamin Stubbs
"Early in the game, it was fastball-changeup. My curveball was working throughout the whole game, but later in the game, I found my slider."

Next Up
Game two between Troy and Southern Miss is set for 2 p.m. Saturday at Pete Taylor Park.