MONROE, La. - Jordy
Poche
limited Troy to just three runs - all in the first two innings - but the
Trojans got solid pitching performances from Drew Hull and Chase Whitley
to
escape Warhawk Field with a 3-2 victory on Sunday afternoon and win the
Sun
Belt Conference series.
Adam Bryant took
the first
pitch of the game out of the park for his 15th home run of
the
season. Troy's other two runs would both come on ground-ball double
plays - one
in the first and one in the second. Poche held the Trojans (26-21, 12-12
Sun
Belt) to just four hits over the final seven innings of the ball game.
Hull held the
Warhawks (17-31,
7-17) scoreless over the first five innings before Nick Wade drove
home Caleb
Clowers with a sacrifice fly in the sixth. Clowers reached on a
one-out walk
and moved to third on a single to center by Judd Edwards.
The Warhawks
mounted a serious
rally in the bottom of the ninth as they scored once and had the tying
run at
third base. Wade led off the frame with a single to left and moved
to
second on a grounder by Kelvin York. Following a strikeout, Perry Smith singled
to
right field to score Wade. Casey Auttonberry moved Smith over to third
with a
single to right-center. After working ahead in the count 0-2, Whitley
was able to
get Josh Chappell to ground into a fielder's choice to end the game.
Only two players in
the game
finished with multiple hits - Auttonberry was 2-for-4 for the Warhawks
and Chad
Watson was 2-for-3 for the Trojans.
Hull (3-5) allowed
one run on
three hits in 5 1/3 innings of work to earn the win. He walked one and
struck
out five before handing the ball off to Whitley. The Troy closer yielded
four
hits in 3 2/3 innings of work. Whitley struck out four and allowed one
run to
pick up his sixth save of the season.
Poche (3-5) was
saddled with
the hard-luck loss. He was charged with three earned runs on nine hits
to go
along with two walks and four strikeouts. The complete-game effort was
his
second of the season and the second of the weekend for the Warhawks
after Drew
Granier went nine innings on Friday.
The Warhawks return
to action
next weekend when they travel to Little Rock, Ark., for a three-game
series
against UALR.
