Troy baseball found its groove after a midweek loss to Auburn by sweeping visiting Northwestern State over the weekend and following it up with a midweek win over No. 18 Mississippi State. Blake Cavill had an amazing series with seven hits, six RBIs and five runs scored to power Troy ahead of the Demons.
“We were really focused and locked in,” said head coach Skylar Meade. “We played clean baseball and played disciplined.
“It was a great job by everybody in every aspect of the game.”
The issues from Tuesday night bled into the beginning of Friday night’s matchup. Troy eventually turned the game around and won in dominating fashion 7-1, but it was a struggle to get things started.
Starting pitcher Garrett Gainous put two Demon runners on base before finally recording an infield fly out to Sean Darnell. The next batter, Brad Benton, stepped up with one out and two men on base with a chance to plate Northwestern State’s first run with a well-placed hit. Instead, Benton hit directly into a double play, and the Trojans escaped the inning unscathed.
Troy followed up that inning with a poor hitting performance, striking out three times. NSU starter Dylan Marionneaux finished with five strikeouts in the contest. The Demons took the lead in the second inning following a solo home run from their first baseman, Daniel Burroway. Northwestern State held on to the lead through the bottom of the second after Marionneaux blew pitches by Mike Bello and Peyton Watts to record two more punchouts.
The third inning is where the chaos began. Gainous struggled on the mound again, putting several players in scoring position, but the Demons were never able to capitalize on the opportunity. Gainous stranded three and the momentum switched sides permanently.
The top of the lineup was due up, and Steven Meier delivered. Meier smoked one into right-center field for a leadoff double. The Demons’ pitcher showed his first signs of breaking down, hitting Darnell with the first pitch thrown. Cavill then stepped up to the plate, recording his second hit of the game. The first baseman finished with a career-high four hits in the contest.
“I got a lot of fastballs tonight,” Cavill said. “Nothing really off speed, so I was able to bring my bat around and connect with it.”
Troy gained a 4-1 lead by the end of the third inning, and Gainous shut down the Demons’ hitters through the next two innings. Grayson Stewart entered the game in the sixth inning to complete the job -- going two full innings without allowing a single hit. Troy started the series with a 7-1 victory.
The offensive momentum carried over into Saturday’s matchup with Troy jumping out to a quick 3-0 lead following several walks from NSU’s starter Tyler Bryan. Troy starter Noah Edders showed a little game two blues but ended the game with seven Ks in the win.
The Trojans were cruising to a win, holding an 11-4 lead heading into the top of the eighth inning, but this is where things got weird. Relief pitcher Jay Dill walked two Demon batters to start the eighth inning, and Meade went to freshman pitcher Chase Cartron. Cartron instantly delivered two outs from the mound, and it looked like Troy would escape the inning, but a Trojans error gave Northwestern State life. The Demons plated six runs in the inning and suddenly, the game was within one run.
A common theme of the series was Cavill stepping up in clutch situations, and he did so once again. The first baseman laced a single to right field, adding two runs to increase the lead to 14-10. Colby Frieda remained in at pitcher, but after giving up a homer Grady Gorgen stepped in and recorded a save. The Trojans escaped with a series win 14-12.
Troy learned from their mistakes the previous day and delivered the series sweep in run-rule style, 14-4. The starting pitcher for Sunday’s matchup, Drew Nelson, pitched 5.2 innings allowing only two runs while also recording four strikeouts.
Junior Dillon Kuehl got things started on the offensive side of things, logging his first hit of the season and scoring Darnell from third. Kuehl provided a spark off the bench in his first start of the year ending the matchup with three hits and three RBIs.
“I was really excited when I heard I was getting the opportunity,” Kuehl said. “I just ran with it from there.”
Darnell put the Trojans ahead 4-0 in the second inning on a three-run homer, spelling out how the day would go for the visiting Demons. Troy jumped out to a 9-2 lead by the sixth inning before Northwestern State found themselves on the board again. The Demons made it a 9-4 game in the top of the seventh inning, but Brooks Bryan was due up.
“My swing has been feeling great,” Bryan said. “I have been hitting the ball all over the field and I like that about my approach.
“If I get one in the air, I always hope it carries its way out.”
Bryan hit his first home run of the season, a grand slam, to plate four more runs and put the nail in the coffin on the matchup. The Trojans swept the weekend to improve to 6-1 on the season, earning them a rise in the top 25 to No. 21 in the nation.
Newly appointed as No. 21, the Trojans headed for Starkville, Mississippi, for a top 25 showdown with No. 18 Mississippi State. Troy struck first on a Lewis 434-foot bomb to right field. The former Bulldog accounted for two runs on the night both, being solo home runs.
Troy slashed their way to a 5-0 lead before pitching errors loaded the bases in the bottom of the fourth inning. Noah Sullivan, brother of former Troy first baseman William Sullivan, blasted a grand slam to bring the Bulldogs back within one. One inning later the game was tied.
Meade went to Grady Gorgen to shut things down in the final two innings -- shut things down is exactly what he did. Gorgen recorded two strikeouts while allowing one hit, but most importantly allowed zero runs. Steven Meier was the hero of the game, blasting a 3-0 fastball into left field for the go-ahead homer, his first of the season. Troy defeated the Bulldogs 6-5.
The Trojans welcome UAB for a home midweek matchup Wednesday Feb. 26 at 4 p.m. before playing host to Penn in a three game weekend series starting on Feb. 28.
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