Baseball wins road series at USC Upstate

Taylor Fraze photo

Pictured: Mike Bello

After a midweek loss to No. 17 Alabama, the No. 19 ranked Trojans traveled to Spartanburg, South Carolina, for their first road weekend series of the season. Troy would take two of the three games over USC Upstate after winning Sunday’s rubber match in dominating fashion.

“We dominated the way we needed to play,” said head coach Skylar Meade. “We felt good about Drew and the gameplan.

“We knew the guys would rise up after the loss Saturday”

Game one of the series featured high octane offensive performances from both ball clubs. This was expected from the Spartans, who rank fifth in the country in offensive production, but it came as a pleasant surprise for Troy.

The two teams combined for 10 home runs in an 11-9 Trojan victory. Senior first baseman Blake Cavill accounted for two of those home runs, recording three hits and four RBIs to lead all Troy batters.

The Trojans dug themselves a hole to begin the game, having both the one- and two-hole batters get out. Cavill was due up next and saw three pitches before deciding to swing at the fourth one and crushed it over the right-field wall for his first home run of the season to give Troy the early advantage.

“In batting practice today, we felt good,” Cavill said. “All the other guys around me kept hitting homers and I kept getting walked, but I finally decided to swing today and it worked.”

The cleanup hitter, Brooks Bryan, followed it up with a blast of his own to center field giving Troy two runs with two outs in the top of the first inning. Out came Garrett Gainous to shut down the Spartans top five offense. Gainous saw three batters and retired all three with soft-contact outs.

The Trojans extended their lead to 5-1 in the top of the third after the first three batters of the inning all reached base. Jacob Wax hit a leadoff double to start the third before Steven Meier and Sean Darnell were both walked to load the bases. Cavill stepped up once again and sliced a two RBI single to right field. On the following at bat, Bryan scorched one to the shortstop, bringing in Darnell from third to increase the lead to 5-1.

Gainous remained comfortable, pitching the Spartans into several groundouts and two strikeouts, but the fourth inning proved to be the turning point. A solo homer in the second inning was the only run scored by Upstate to this point, until Johnny Sweeney hit one of his own.

The margin shrank to only a 5-3 lead, but the man of the match, Cavill, mashed a homer over the batter’s eye to regain momentum. The Trojans held a 7-3 lead heading into the bottom of the fifth inning. In the bottom of the fifth, the Spartans clobbered another home run on Gainous to bring the lead down to 7-5. Freshman Noah Thigpen entered and surrendered a home run of his own and now it was only a one run game.

Neither team would score again until the top of the eighth inning, when Meier laced one to left field to score two runs. Upstate responded by hitting their fifth home run of the game off pitcher Jay Dill before tying the game at nine with an RBI double on a misread from Mike Bello.

All the momentum lay with Upstate. Troy had two outs in the top of the ninth with Bello stepping up to the plate. Bello had zero hits in the game up to this point and allowed the game tying run just one frame earlier. The Trojans were down to their final strike on a 1-2 count.

“Mikey made as much of an effort on that play in the outfield as you can and the ball just dropped out of his glove,” Meade said. “The game rewarded Mikey for his toughness and grit that he has always had.”

Bello crushed a home run to right field to break the tie, and Shane Lewis followed it up with a homer of his own. Luke Lyon stepped in and shut things down from the mound, allowing Troy to take game one 11-9.

The name of the second game was mistakes. Troy played sloppy in game two, making bad reads on hit balls and bad decisions on throws. Wild pitches advanced several runners into scoring position and even allowed some of them to score a run.

The Trojans did have 12 hits but left nine runners stranded on base. The offense was never able to capitalize, grounding into double play after double play. The slugfest of the previous game was a thing of the past in a 5-4 loss in game two.

The Trojans entered their first rubber match of the season with Drew Nelson on the bump. The mistakes of day two did not hinder the Trojans one bit, as the hitters jumped all over Upstate’s starter Chris Torres. All nine batters came to the plate in the first inning, taking a 4-0 lead into the bottom of the frame.

Nelson was surgical on the mound, forcing Upstate into the same mistakes Troy made the previous game. The pitcher only allowed one earned run through six innings, striking out five Spartan batters.

“I settled in after the first few innings,” Nelson said. “When your team gets four runs in the top of the innings it fills us as pitchers with confidence to get the outs and keep the lead.”

The game was never in reach for the Spartans as the lead ballooned to 9-3 in the top of the fifth after a Darnell two-RBI single. The lead extended even further in the seventh with a Meier solo home run.

The Trojans took a 14-4 lead into the bottom of the ninth inning before a combination of Lyon and Grady Gorgen on the mound ended things for the Spartans. Troy claimed the rubber match 14-7, looking much more like the nationally ranked preseason team they are.

The Trojans improved to 13-3 on the season, dropping to No. 21 in the latest D1 Baseball poll.

After a midweek tilt at Jacksonville State, the road trip continues as Troy opens conference play at Louisiana this weekend.