Baseball sweeps Jacksonville

Wesley KirchharrSports Writer The Troy baseball team swept a weekend series against Jacksonville, riding a 4-game win streak to a 7-1 overall record. In Friday night’s series opener, the Trojans and the Dolphins traded pairs of runs early before Troy posted a two-run seventh inning to put the game on ice. A quick 2-0 Troy lead in the bottom of the second was quickly relinquished when Jacksonville tallied two runs of their own in the top of the third. Troy found offense behind several players as Rigsby Mosely and Drew Frederic posted five hits among themselves, three of which were RBI’s. Of the eight hits Troy totaled, six were for extra bases as Kyle Mock and Logan Cerny posted a pair of doubles. Following a lone Jacksonville run in the fourth inning, Troy’s Orlando Ortiz denied the Dolphins any more scoring opportunities as he took the win on the mound. Following a three-run win on Friday night, Troy never looked back as they downed Jacksonville by seven and nine runs on Saturday and Sunday, respectively. Game two saw true freshman pitcher Garrett Gainous striking out 10 in his six innings of work. “He was terrific,” said head coach Mark Smartt. “Everything about his performance was terrific. His stuff improved and I thought his execution got better.” Until the fourth inning, neither team had scored as Jacksonville put the first run on the board. Troy then scored eight unanswered to take the win away, scoring three in the bottom of the fourth to take the 8-1 win. Sunday’s matchup followed much of the same script as Saturday as Troy posted several runs in an inning, leaving the Dolphins to play catch-up. Troy scored four runs in the third, one in the fifth and four more in the seventh to take the game and sweep the series with the 9-0 win. The Trojans have yet to face a Sun Belt opponent and are set to do so on March 19 when Troy plays host to Georgia Southern. Up next, Troy will travel to Hammond, Louisiana to take on Southeastern University for a three-game series.