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Troy fell 11-4 in the first leg of the doubleheader but bounced back with a 7-5 win in the series finale to take the road set at Louisiana Tech Sunday at J.C. Love Field.

The Trojans (4-3) picked up their first series win of the season over a Bulldog (5-2) squad that won 39 games last season and was previously undefeated in through four games. Troy took two out of three in the set following Saturday’s one-run victory in the first ever meeting between the two teams.

Game One

A five-run first put the Trojans behind the eight ball early, and the Bulldogs piled it on with two-run homers in each of their final three at-bats to even the series with an 11-4 win in the first leg of the doubleheader.

Tech had five players record multiple hits in the matchup, led by a couple of three-hit games from Taylor Young and Mason Mallard. The Bulldogs also had five players drive in more than one run in the matchup, starting with a three-RBI double in the first inning.

After the five-run first inning, Troy responded with three runs in the top of the second starting with an RBI single from Sadler Goodwin – Goodwin finished 3-for-4 with two RBI and a run scored in the game. The only other Trojan to record more than one hit was Tanner Jackson, who finished 2-for-4 in the contest.

Beau Billings (1-0) earned the win in relief for the Bulldogs, pitching 2.1 innings of one-hit work – he fanned one. Troy’s Grant Stewart (0-1) took the loss after allowing five runs on five hits in 0.2 innings on the mound.

Game Two

Troy bounced back in a big way in the series finale, jumping on Tech early and often to secure the 7-5 win to clinch the series. Drew Frederic launched two homers, while Chase Smartt and Austin Garofalo recorded four hits apiece in the game.

Frederic bookended the scoring for the Trojans, hitting a solo homer in the first and another in the eighth – he finished 2-for-3 at the plate, adding a couple of walks and three runs scored. Smartt and Garofalo both recorded four hits in five attempts, with identical lines of one RBI, one run scored and one double each.

 

After the Bulldogs responded with a run of their own in the bottom of the first, Sadler Goodwin held the offense scoreless until the fifth inning – helping Troy get out to a 5-1 lead at that point. Rush Hixon (1-0) picked up his first win of the season after dealing two innings of one-hit relief work. Redshirt junior Cory Gill (2) earned his second save of the weekend after fanning three batters in the final two innings of the ballgame.

 

The Trojans scored in five of the first six innings and added another in the eighth, but the resilient Tech team wouldn’t go away easily – thanks, in part, to a couple of no-doubt solo homers from Steele Netterville in the sixth and eighth innings.

 

LA Tech starter Logan Bailey (0-1) fell for the first time in 2019, scattering 10 hits around eight strikeouts and allowing five runs – four earned – in 4.1 innings of work.