Pitchers duel: Snyder smashes walk-off home run to give the Trojans a 2-0 win over Southern Mississippi

Published 3:00 am Thursday, March 16, 2017

Photo/Mike Hensley
The Troy Trojans defeated the Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles when Stephanie Snyder connected on a two-run walk-off homerun in the bottom of seventh inning on Wednesday afternoon.

The Troy Trojans and the Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles sparred in an old-fashioned pitchers duel on Wednesday afternoon that ended with a two-run walk-off homerun by Stephanie Snyder to give Troy a 2-0 win.

The win for the Trojans improves their overall record on the season to 13-14.

“It was a really good game,” said Troy head coach Beth Mullins. “I think if you’re a fan of both sides you really enjoyed it. It really was a pitchers duel. It was really good pitching and defense. I though both sides had really good at-bats, it’s just nobody could quite push one around.”

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The Trojans had eight hits in the game, with their only extra base hit coming on the walk-off homerun. Katie Webb led with way at the plate going 3-3, while Becca Hartley, Madeline Porter and Erica Davis and Brooke Echols all had a hit apiece.

Claire Graves took to the mound as the starter on Wednesday and threw all seven innings allowing no runs on six hits and striking out three batters.

“I was proud of Claire Graves,” Mullins said. “I thought she did a really good job. She has gotten better throughout the year. She had her changeup working today which was really nice.”

Both teams combined for seven hits over the first three innings with neither team breaking through on the scoreboard. The Trojans had a chance in the third inning when they had two runners on base with two outs. Katie Webb singled to left field, but Madeline Porter was thrown out at home plate while trying to score the first run.

In the seventh inning, Becca Hartley had a one-out single to set things up for Snyder. All afternoon, the Trojans struggled with the off-speed pitch of Kim Crowson. With a 2-1 count, Snyder connected on the changeup to give the Trojans the win.

“The pitch before, Becca Hartley came up to me and she said ‘you get to do this’,” Snyder said. “We are moving pitch to pitch this year, that is our big thing this year. I was just ready for it. I timed it up good and I hit it.”

The Trojans will return home this Saturday when they take on Georgia State in a double header scheduled to start at 1 p.m.