Scott Shelton The Troy baseball team took two of three games from Texas State on the road last weekend and won its second-consecutive series in Sun Belt Conference play. With the series win, the Trojans move to a winning record at 16-15 and improve their conference record to 5-7. After Friday’s doubleheader, Head Coach Mark Smartt spoke of the team’s performance. “We played a tough ball team, and our team played really hard,” Smartt said. “What I was really proud of was that we fought back after being down early. “We weren't satisfied after we won the first game, and we did enough to win both games.” In the first game, the Trojans brought their bats to San Marcos, Texas, by jumping out to a five-run lead early in the game. Cole Prestegard and Logan Cerny got the Trojans on the board with a pair of RBIs in the first inning. Manning Early followed with a home run in the second inning. The home run marked the sophomore’s second of the season and the fifth of his career. Cerny and Early both drove in more runs in the third inning, extending the Trojan lead to five runs. Texas State’s Jaxon Williams put the Bobcats on the board in the third inning. In the seventh inning, the Bobcats scored another RBI, but the Trojan defense held strong. Cory Gill started the game for the Trojans, and the redshirt junior put away five batters by strikeout. Lance Johnson, Ryan Fultz and Rush Hixon all saw time on the mound, giving up just two hits and one run among them. Tanner Jackson put the game away in the ninth inning with a two RBI single, and the Trojans took the first game 7-3. In game two of the series, the Trojans’ offense played well once again, but they had to come from behind. Williams again was the anchor for Texas State, driving in both of the Bobcats’ first two runs of the game. Dalton Sinquefield put Troy on the board and tied the game in the fourth inning with a two RBI double. Jaylen Hubbard hit a home run — his third of the season — to put the Bobcats up midway through the game. Troy responded with a string of five runs in the sixth and seventh innings. Sadler Goodwin was responsible for three of those runs coming off a pair of doubles. In the last three series against Sun Belt Conference opponents, Goodwin has at least one game with three RBIs. Overall, Goodwin has at least one RBI in 11 of the last 13 games. The Bobcats mounted a comeback rally in the ninth inning, but the Trojans held on to win 7-6 and clinched the series. Zack Lightsey earned his first win of the season after coming in relief for Levi Thomas. Lightsey allowed one run and just one hit in his two innings pitched. In the final game of the series, the Trojans came from behind again and took the game to extra innings. The Trojans started out hot with a trio of RBI from Goodwin, Cerny and Chase Smartt. A rain delay pushed the game back to Sunday, which seemed to open up the offense for Texas State. The Bobcats hit a three-run home run in a five-run inning and took the lead. Just two innings later, Cerny responded with his own three-run home run to pull Troy within one. The home run marked Cerny’s fourth of the season. Cerny has at least one home run in three of the last four series against Sun Belt Conference teams. The game went to extra innings, and the Bobcats hit an RBI single in the bottom of the 10th inning to take the game 8-7. Next, the team travels to Atlanta for a series against Georgia State, who is currently last place in the Sun Belt Conference Standings.
Staff Writer
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