Tuesday night the Trojan baseball team broke out its broom.
The 8-2 victory over Samford on Tuesday completed the season sweep over the Bulldogs and kept Troy’s 13-game home win streak alive.
Once again the Trojans (30-11, 11-7) were stagnant on offense throughout much of the game.
Both teams remained scoreless through four innings until the Bulldogs finally got on the board with a run in the fourth, and Troy followed suit with a Trae Santos double in the second to tie the game.
The game was shaping up to be a thriller, but the Trojans trademark offensive explosion came in the seventh and seamlessly put the game out of reach.
This time it wasn’t so much a result of a dominating at the plate for Troy, but rather a lack thereof by Samford.
The Trojans needed only one hit to score their seven runs.
In the seventh, Samford walked three batters, hit another, had two errors and allowed two more runs by way of a wild pitch.
Troy’s ability to materialize high-scoring innings has been one of the few consistencies of its offense this season.
For head coach Bobby Pierce, it’s unlike anything he has ever seen from a team as a coach.
“It’s a strange thing,” said Pierce. “In my 31 years I’ve never seen a team that can score five or more runs in an inning as often as this team does.”
This has been a point of interest for the Trojans much of the season, and although they are getting the job done, the scoring output lacks the consistency that Pierce would like to see.
“We’ve tried to find a way to get that message across without panicking,” said Pierce, now giggling at the idea of it. “But the team is second in the country in scoring, so it is one of those things where what are you really complaining about?”
It’s less of a complaint at this point given that they are averaging 8.2 runs per game, more a small growing concern.
“It’s the dangdest thing you’ve ever seen, however they are putting up a lot of runs so I don’t want to get them off of what they’re doing,” said Pierce.
Although the offensive explosions are undoubtedly exciting, it isn’t what you would like to see out of a team vying for a championship.
However this late in the season it is unreasonable to expect a drastic change of pace for the Trojan offense.
“It’s one of those things where at this point you are who you are,” said Pierce. “It’s hard to change a lot so we aren’t trying to change anything, just tweaking some stuff and adding to what we do.”
Next up for Troy is a trip to Boca Raton, Fla., to face the Florida Atlantic Owls, who are tied with the Trojans for 2nd in the Sun Belt.
The Owls (26-14, 11-7) are an experienced bunch with a pithing staff that will challenge Troy’s high-octane offense, first pitch is set for 5:30 p.m.
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