TROY, Ala. - Georgia Southern avoided a sweep from Sun Belt foe Troy and earned a 9-7 victory to finish off the series on Sunday afternoon at Riddle-Pace Field.
The Eagles (24-23, 14-10 SBC) threw the first punch in the top of the first frame with a monster shot by Noah Ledford, a home run that traveled 470 feet and was 110mph off the bat. In the top of the second inning, Luke Hatcher would bring Blake Evans home with an RBI-double down the left field line, following that with a fielder's choice sac bunt knocked by Sam Blancato that could not tag anyone out, scoring Hatcher for a 3-0 lead for GS after two. The top of the fourth inning saw two more Eagle runs come home, first from a wild pitch scoring Blancato and next from a Jarrett Brown RBI-single, plating Sherrill and giving the Eagles a 5-0 lead after three and a half innings of play.
Troy (33-16, 13-11 SBC) responded in the bottom of the fourth inning, first with an RBI-single and secondly with a sac fly to shorted the Eagles lead to just three runs. Georgia Southern would respond in the top of the sixth inning with an RBI-single by Brown and a sac fly by Ledford to get those two runs back, going up 7-2. However, the Trojans would blast a three-run homer to right field in the bottom of the sixth frame to tighten the gap at 7-5. In the top of the seventh inning, an RBI-single up the middle by Hatcher brought Evans home for a 8-5 lead, but a solo shot by Troy in the bottom of the seventh inning would again cut the lead down to just two runs. A sac fly by Evans in the top of the eighth inning would bring the lead back to three runs, and Troy would cut the lead to two for a third time in the bottom of the eighth with a strikeout wild pitch, scoring the runner on third. Troy would load the bases in the bottom of the ninth inning with one out, but a 6-4-3 double play would secure career win No. 900 for Rodney Hennon and salvage the finale for the Eagles.
Mitchell Gross earned his third win of the season with 5.1 innings of work, giving up five runs on seven hits with four strikeouts. Ben Johnson earned his first save of the season with two runs on four hits in 3.2 innings, fanning three Trojans batters.
QUICK HITS
- Noah Ledford's 470 foot home run was the longest in the Trackman era for the Eagles.
- Jesse Sherrill now has a 14-game hit streak and eight straight games of multiple hits.
- Five Eagles had multiple hits, with Brown, Hatcher, Evans, Blancato, and Sherrill all having two hits. Ledford had a 1-for-1 day with his home run in the first inning. He walked three times and had one sac fly.
- The Eagles used two pitchers for the contest, combining for seven strikeouts on the day.
- By salvaging the finale, Georgia Southern has never been swept by Troy. The only sweep in the series came from last season, when Georgia Southern swept Troy in Statesboro.