Five-Run Sixth Lifts Troy Past Louisiana in Friday Comeback

Friday, April 17

Troy, Ala.

6 p.m.

Troy University

19-19, 9-7

Louisiana

21-16, 6-10

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Louisiana	1	0	0	0	4	1	0	0	0	6	11	0
Troy	2	0	0	0	0	5	0	0	X	7	9	1

Five-Run Sixth Lifts Troy Past Louisiana in Friday Comeback

4/17/2026 10:35:00 PM | Baseball

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By: Troy Athletics Communications

TROY, Ala. - Troy overcame a 6-2 deficit with a five-run sixth inning to top Louisiana 7-6 in Friday night's series opener at Riddle-Pace Field.

The Ragin Cajuns (21-16, 6-10) got a strong start from righty Cody Brasch, who fanned six and limited Troy to a pair of first-inning runs through his first five innings of work, but a leadoff double by Troy (19-19, 9-7 SBC) first baseman Blake Cavill and a one-out RBI single by Steven Meier forced them to turn to the bullpen.

Left-hander Ty Roman walked Drew Nelson, hit Nolan Book and issued another free pass to Sean Darnell to force in Troy's second run of the inning. Houston Markham followed with a sacrifice fly to trim the deficit to one before Aaron Piasecki delivered the decisive blow, a go-ahead, two-run triple off the Trojan Wall in deep right-center, to give Troy a 7-6 lead.

While righty Sawyer Pruitt kept the Cajuns within striking distance with 2.1 scoreless innings to follow, lefty Zach Crotchfelt got Troy to the finish line with four dominant innings out of the bullpen. Louisiana got one run against the Troy senior before the Trojans' five-run sixth, and Crotchfelt followed with three scoreless frames, finishing with a career best seven strikeouts to earn the win.

Troy starter Benjamin Stubbs went five innings, allowing five earned runs on eight hits and two walks while striking out four. Louisiana strung together three hits for a run in the first before an HBP, a sac bunt and four hits gave the Cajuns a four-run fifth inning. Jimmy Janicki and Meier each picked up RBIs against Brasch in the bottom of the first after a leadoff single by Piasecki.

Notables

Troy trailed 6-2 and came back to win 7-6. It was the Trojans' third four-run comeback win of the season, with all three coming in April. Troy previously made four-run comebacks in wins over Arkansas State (April 4) and Texas State (April 11).
Zach Crotchfelt pitched four innings out of the bullpen to earn the win. It was the longest relief appearance of his career.
Crotchfelt's seven strikeouts were a career high and the most by a Troy reliever this season. He previously struck out five hitters three times in his career.
Blake Cavill extended his reached base streak to 27 games.
Josh Pyne and Sean Darnell extended their reached base streaks to 11 games.
Nolan Book extended his hitting streak to five games.
Jimmy Janicki knocked in his Sun Belt leading 49th RBI of the season.

Quotables
Head Coach Skylar Meade
"I thought both sides were incredibly competitive. It's what you talk about over the last couple of days as you're preparing for the weekend. You know what you're going to get from Coach Deggs' group. They're going to compete hard. They compete right. They did a really good job on Stubbs. They had a lot of two-out magic there, unfortunately. But in that inning, we were able to grind enough. Big swing from Steve [Meier] to make it 6-3 after Blake had started us off that inning. And then just did a great job when the bullpen came in."

Right fielder Aaron Piasecki
"Blake started it with a double. We probably walked two or three times. Long at-bats. Got to their starter. We wanted to bounce him earlier, but it was a good time to bounce him. We got to their bullpen and went from there."

LHP Zach Crotchfelt
"Once we put up that five-spot there, I just wanted to go compete and go everything I had for these guys."

Next Up
Game two between Troy and Louisiana is scheduled for 3:33 p.m. at Riddle-Pace Field. Senior righty Tommy Egan starts for the Trojans after tossing a seven-inning complete game at Texas State last week, while Louisiana will turn to graduate lefty Andrew Herrmann.