Baseball wins another conference series on the road

Taylor Fraze photo

Sean Darnell celebrates on second base during a game against Coastal Carolina.

After struggling in a midweek matchup against Virginia Tech, the Trojans visited conference opponent James Madison for a three-game series. The Dukes jumped on Troy in game one, but the Trojans responded in the next two matchups to take the series on the road.

“The only thing that matters in this world of competition is winning,” said head coach Skylar Meade in an interview with Troy Athletics. “People remember winners and I am so glad about how we have managed this road trip.”

Troy remains at No. 20 following the series win and improves to 26-11 on the season. The Trojans’ 10-5 conference record currently has the team tied for second place in the Sun Belt.

Following a 3-1 loss to Virginia Tech, a matchup where Troy struck out 17 times, the offense was unable to get going, losing 7-3 in the first matchup against JMU. The Dukes had Trojan starter Garrett Gainous off balance from the start. Gainous surrendered eight hits and all seven runs while only having four strikeouts to his name.

“We just did not come out ready to play,” Meade said. “Their guys came out more ready to go than us and handled the game better.

“Especially against a good arm, I credit their pitcher for making the pitches and plays when he needed to.”

JMU starter Jackson Logar had all the Troy hitters swinging and missing, going seven innings with nine strikeouts. JMU jumped out to a 7-0 lead through five innings, before Troy sent in reliever Brock Tapper. Tapper pitched the final 3.2 innings, shutting down the Dukes’ batters and allowing no runs.

The momentum created by Tapper carried over to the offense, as the Trojans plated three runs in the eighth inning to draw closer, but the deficit was too much to overcome. Troy dropped game one 7-3, suffering their second straight loss.

The team responded to this loss with a 6-3 victory in the Saturday matchup to force the rubber match. Blake Cavill led the way from the leadoff spot with three hits, two of them being home runs, and five RBIs. Noah Edders looked extraordinary from the mound, going seven innings with four strikeouts.

“I’m glad we had Blake on our team,” Meade said. “He was the star of this game, and it was a really good job by all parties to get this win.”

The offense got going early and often for Troy. Jimmy Janicki hit an RBI single in the top of the first inning, and Cavill smoked a two-run shot to dead center in the second inning. JMU responded to these moments with three runs of their own.

Wyatt Peifer had an RBI double in the first inning, Jackson Tone slashed his first career home run in the second and Ryan Dooley hit the tying RBI single in the third. The Trojans, however, continued to rake from the plate.

Gavin Schrader got on base with a single in the fourth, followed by Dillon Kuehl drawing a walk. The next batter -- Jakob Wax -- struck out swinging, bringing Cavill up to the plate with both runners in danger of being stranded.

“After yesterday’s tough loss we needed to come out and show some excitement,” Cavill said. “I felt like I needed to lead the team and that’s what I did.”

Cavill turned on the fifth pitch he saw, hitting his second home run of the contest to give Troy a permanent 6-3 lead. Edders settled in, pitching three straight scoreless innings before freshman Noah Thigpen came in and slammed the door on the Dukes. Troy had forced a winner take all rubber match for Sunday.

Troy turned to Jay Dill for the rubber match start, and the usual closing pitcher did not disappoint. Dill pitched four innings, only allowing a single hit with three strikeouts. The Trojans used four pitchers in the contest in a combined shut out, 4-0, to claim the series.

“We shot our shot with Dill starting, and he delivered for us,” Meade said. “To give us four shutout innings was great.”

Both teams were unable to get the bats rolling until Troy made Dukes’ starter Todd Mozoki pay for his mistakes. Troy opened the scoring in the third inning with a Brooks Bryan RBI hit by pitch with bases loaded.

Mozoki struck out Sean Darnell, and it looked like he was about to escape the bases loaded jam. However,he then walked Janicki to bring in another run. Kuehl was walked to bring in yet another run, ending Mozoki’s day.

The Dukes brought in Max Kuhle in what turned out to be a great choice by their head coach. Kuhle would finish the game, going 6.1 innings with a career-high nine strikeouts.

His lone run given up was a Janicki RBI single, scoring Houston Markham from second. James Madison was just unable to produce any form of offense the entire day.

Colby Frieda entered in relief of Dill and stepped in right where Dill left off. Frieda went four innings with four strikeouts of his own, earning the win for the contest.

“It was as simple as throwing strikes,” Frieda said. “We attacked the zone and trusted our stuff and that always pays off.”

Grayson Stewart entered in the ninth inning, looking to shut down JMU for the series win, but surrendered the most offense the Dukes had all game. Stewart allowed two hits before getting a flyout to left field, so Meade sent in Luke Lyon to finish the job. Lyon forced two straight pop ups to strand the JMU runners, securing the 4-0 shutout.

The Trojans concluded their two-week road trip with this series win over James Madison and return home for their next series. The series features three games against the ULM Warhawks, a team fresh off a series win over Louisiana. The first matchup of the series will begin on Thursday, Apr. 17 at 6 p.m.