by Caleb Thomas
After a weekend sweep of South Carolina Upstate, the Troy baseball team extended its season opening win streak to 11 games.
Over the weekend, the Trojans dominated the Spartans in all facets of the game, both pitching and hitting – it all started with pitcher Brady Fuller’s Friday night performance.
In Troy’s 5-2 series-opening win, Fuller went 5.2 innings with only one unearned run given up and five hits surrendered. During the outing, he shut down the USCU offense, striking out a staggering 10 batters.
Saturday’s game was the antithesis of the pitching duel the day prior, as the Trojans won a 15-9 contest full of offensive fireworks. While the Spartans jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the fourth inning, left fielder Shane Lewis continued his propensity to jumpstart the offense with a three-run homer to knot the game at four. Lewis was named Collegiate Baseball National Player of the week on Monday.
From that point on, the Trojans would score eight unanswered runs to take a commanding lead before yet another three-run homer from Lewis put the game out of reach in the eighth inning. Lewis was the star of the weekend, hitting a total of four homers and 13 RBIs in three games. His eight runs batted in on Saturday were the most from a Troy player since Stacy Gillispie against Stenson in 1999, according to the Troy Athletics website.
After Saturday’s show, Troy kept the momentum rolling on Sunday, winning a seven-inning mercy rule game, 10-0. Friday had the pitching, Saturday had the offense, and Sunday was one of the best all-around games the Trojans have played to this point in the season.
Grayson Stewart pitched all seven innings, striking out four batters and only allowing six hits. Troy opened the game with nine runs in the first two innings off of Spartans’ pitcher Henry Proger, who had an earned run average of 0.69 entering the game. Although the USCU bullpen held Troy in check the rest of the afternoon, the damage was already done.
Leading the Spartans’ bullpen performance on Sunday was Noah Sullivan, brother of Troy first baseman William Sullivan. Noah got the best of William during his two perfect innings on Sunday, forcing the elder Sullivan to ground into the shift.
The weekend was marked by the Sullivan brothers making an impact, with both brothers getting four hits in the series. William had three RBIs to his brother’s zero, hitting a decisive home run in game one and a few other RBI base hits.
Looking forward, the Trojans have their first road games of the season as they travel to Orlando, Florida, this weekend to face UCF. The Golden Knights have started the season off well, sweeping Clemson earlier in the year. Game times for the series are 5 p.m. Friday, 3 p.m. Saturday and 12 p.m. Sunday.
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