Baseball secures series win over Marshall

Taylor Fraze photo

Gavin Schrader steps in for an at-bat against Marshall.

The Trojans prevailed in three low scoring affairs to win the series over the Thundering Herd two games to one. The Trojans improved their record to 21-8 overall and 6-3 in conference play, which is good enough for second in the Sun Belt.

The series opener on Friday resulted in a 4-3 victory for the Trojans. Senior pitcher Garrett Gainous threw five innings, recording seven strikeouts through the frames. Gainous also shut down a normally high-scoring Marshall offense, only giving up one run in the contest.

“We had two really big impactful swings to win this game,” said head coach Skylar Meade.

“Gainous competed well throughout the entire game and rarely do we have someone throw 100 pitches in a game.

“I am excited that guys like Gainous want to be out there to compete.”

On the other side of the field, Marshall’s ace -- left hander Bryce Blevins -- gave the Trojan batters fits to begin the game. The lefty made it through six frames, shoving five strikeouts of his own, but the Troy batters made him pay when it mattered most. Troy would have seven hits in this matchup, but two were bigger than the others.

In his first collegiate start, freshman Peryn Bland delivered in his first appearance at the plate. With two outs into the bottom of the second inning, Bland stepped up to the plate and looked like a natural while doing it. The freshman scorched a ground ball inside third base to secure a two RBI double, giving Troy their first lead of the game.

“My approach was to just slow down and own the moment” Bland said. “I needed to be as relaxed as I can in my first at-bat in college baseball.”

Gavin Schrader continued his hot start at the plate by blasting a two-run homer over the scoreboard in the sixth inning to increase Troy’s lead to 4-1.

“I did not start the game well,” Schrader said. “But after talking to the coaches they told me to sit off speed and I saw the pitch up and did damage with it.”

The Trojans would not score on offense for the rest of the game, so the bullpen had to take over the game. Colby Frieda entered the game in the eighth in a one run game and shut down the Herd offense. Frieda would strike out the first three batters Marshall sent to the plate in the ninth to secure the 4-3 win.

Game two of the series had the same exact score, but a different method of getting there.

On Saturday, the Trojans had to make the comeback late like Marshall did the day before.

Troy prevailed due to late game heroics from Brooks Bryan to secure the series with a 4-3 win.

Starting pitcher Junior Noah Edders pitched his best outing of the season in the victory, going 7.1 innings with seven punchouts. Troy jumped on Marshall’s starter Griffin Miller early, but the sophomore settled into the game and fired 7.1 innings with eight strikeouts.

“All the credit to their guy,” Meade said. “We got on him early, but he flipped the script on us.

“Confidence is a funny thing, and you could see that with Edders also. It is a rarity to see two starters go eight innings these days.”

Troy jumped to an early 1-0 lead thanks to Steven Meier getting on base and using his speed on the base path to make the Herd pay. After this early score, the Trojans were unable to find any rhythm with Griffin taking over the game from the mound.

Marshall tied the game in the third and later took the lead in the fifth on a Cam Harthan solo home run, the first of his season. In the eighth inning, an Eddie Leon solo home run extended the game to 3-1 in favor of the Herd. Freshman Noah Thigpen entered the game for Edders and delivered two immediate outs, mitigating the damage.

The Trojans needed an eighth inning rally and would have to do so against a submarine pitcher. Marshall’s submariner Nicholas Weyrich entered in the eighth looking to shut down the top of the order. Weyrich instead loaded the bases and gave Bryan a chance to be the hero.

“It is definitely weird at first to bat against a submariner,” Bryan said. “With a pitcher like that you must see the ball into the zone and attack pitches you know you can get at.

“I attacked a pitch in my zone, and you saw what happened.”

Troy’s Captain America stepped up and rifled a ball to the deepest part of the outfield for a three RBI triple, giving Troy their first lead of the game since the first inning. Senior Jay Dill entered the game and ended it, securing the final three outs for yet another 4-3 Trojan victory.

However, the Herd would not leave Trojan territory without some blood drawn. Marshall was able to claim victory in the final matchup of the series 6-5 in 11 innings, salvaging their road trip. Troy had four errors in the series finale.

“We got sloppy,” Meade said. “The game bites you for not being able execute at good levels.”

The Trojans squandered a 4-0 lead in the eighth inning by giving up five runs to the Herd.

Designated hitter Ethan Murdoch had been quiet all weekend but stepped up and smashed his eighth homer of the season off a Dill pitch to give the Herd the lead.

Troy got a run back on Marshall’s elite closer Tim Baird because of a throwing error, extending the game to extra innings. Blake Cavill was not in the contest due to injury, so Bryan was out of his normal role at catcher playing first base. A costly error from Bryan at the position which would have ended the 11th inning allowed a Herd runner to score.

Weyrich then entered and delivered the knockout blow.

Despite the loss in the Sunday game, Troy rose in D1 Baseball’s rankings from No. 22 to No. 20. The Trojans play one more time at home on Wednesday, Apr. 2 at noon against Florida A&M, before heading on a two-week trip to Virginia beginning with a series against Old Dominion on Friday, Apr. 4. The series opener begins at 5 PM and will be streamed on ESPN+.