Despite only collecting six hits in the game, the Troy baseball team earned a big conference-opening victory over Greenville last week 10-1.
“We took advantage of situations and were patient at the plate,” said Troy coach Ty Welker. “We didn’t chase a lot of pitches, and we put the ball in play with runners in scoring position. It has been a different mentality for us, and if we continue to do that we will be successful.”
Troy scored six times in the third inning to take the early lead. Jacob Curcio struck out to open the third, but reached on a passed ball from the Greenville catcher. Another error and two consecutive walks to Brandon Emery and Jaren Bair brought home one run. Alex Riedel drove in two runs on a single, then after Jake Daniel was hit by a pitch, Troy Moore singled in a run and Curcio batted again and knocked in a run with a single, pushing the Trojans lead to 6-0 in the third.
In the fourth, Emery singled to lead off another scoring opportunity, and went to second on a passed ball. Emery then moved to second on a passed ball and over to third on a wild pitch. He scored when Austin Barney singled to make it 7-0 Troy.
Two more runs crossed the plate in the sixth inning, when Bair walked to leadoff, Reidel also walked and both runners moved up in a wild pitch. Daniel grounded to shortstop to score a run, then two batters later, Justin O’Neill grounded out to allow the second run of the inning to score and take the Trojans lead to 9-1.
After Greenville got on the board, the Trojans capped the scoring on the night with a run in the seventh when Emery walked, Noah Roswell also walked, and Daniel singled to load the bases. Only one run scored for Troy as Emery scored on a wild pitch to take the lead to 10-1
“We walked 13 times in this game and were patient all night,” Welker said.
Jordan Peck pitched a complete game two-hitter, striking out seven.
“It was the second big outing for Jordan, and his hard work has paid off,” Welker said. “He had a tremendous off-season and prepared to be our top pitcher. He has been that so far. We got the league started off the right way.”
Troy is now 4-2 on the season.