Strong finish
Published 8:30 pm Monday, February 23, 2009
MYRTLE BEACH, SC — The Troy University Trojans finished a strong opening weekend with a solid performance on Sunday against Southern Illinois, taking a 10-3 victory over the Salukis.
The win gives the Trojans a 3-1 record on the weekend while SIU fell to 1-3 in the tournament.
The Trojans turned to senior Jeff Green to make the start on Sunday and he did not disappoint in earning his first win of the year. Green worked into the sixth inning and allowed just six hits and two runs, both coming on a two-run homer in the sixth. He struck out four and walked only one in the win.
“Jeff pitched a fine game for us,” Trojans head coach Bobby Pierce said. “The one kid hit a line drive off him over the wall in left, but other than that Jeff was really good. We knew that, with the wind today, he needed to keep the ball down, and he had a good slider and his fastball had better velocity than we have seen lately.”
Troy got on the board first, scoring three unearned runs in the fourth inning thanks to a pair of SIU errors and a pair of wild pitches. Those three runs made a hard-luck loser out of SIU starter Jimmy Cornell, who surrendered just those three runs in five innings of work, allowing just four hits while striking out five.
After SIU closed the gap on the two-run homer from Michael Stalter in he sixth, the Trojans answered with five runs in the bottom on the inning off the SIU bullpen.
The big blows in the inning included a two-run homer from Trevor Tyre and a two-run double by Steven Felix.
SIU got one back in the top of the seventh when Chris Murphy lifted a ball into the strong wind to left and it just got out of the park off reliever Jordan Mathers, but Troy answered again in the eighth when Charley Williams muscled a ball over the wall in left for a two-run homer.
Sophomore Drew Hull worked the final two innings on the mound for Troy, allowing just one hit and one walk.
Ryan Ditthardt and Shohei Fujita had two hits each to lead the Trojans’ 11-hit attack.
Troy will return to action on Wednesday afternoon with a 3 p.m. game at Kennesaw State.
The Trojans will play their home opener Friday night against Memphis to open a three-game weekend series.
The first pitch on Friday is scheduled for 6 p.m.