It wasn’t easy but the Troy Trojans (19-7) rebounded after a Tuesday loss to beat the Florida A&M Rattlers (11-12) by a score of 10-8 on the road on Wednesday, March 26. 

Troy fell behind 7-0 in the contest to earn the win in what is the largest known comeback in school history. Florida A&M came out on fire, scoring six runs in the first inning and adding a seventh in the second to take what looked like an insurmountable lead. The Trojans, though, began to chip away at it. 

In the third, Troy’s Gavin Schrader belted a three-run home run that put Troy on the scoreboard and cut the lead to 7-3. In the sixth, All-American Brooks Bryan hit a two-run homer of his own that further cut the lead to 7-5. Florida A&M’s William Brown answers with a solo dinger in the bottom of the sixth that extended the lead to 8-5 and then Troy reeled off five unanswered runs.

Dillon Kuehel hit a solo home run in the seventh and then Steven Meier drove Mike Bello home to bring Troy within one run. Blake Cavill then tied the score on an error in the top of the eighth inning before Kuehl hit what would be the game-winning two-run home run to put Troy ahead 10-8. 

“We had some guys that took their best swing in the right moments,” Troy Coach Skylar Meade said. “(Kuehl) had the two, Brooks had the one, and Schrader had the one, and that was really the difference.”

Kuel was a menace at the plate for Troy, going 3-for-5 with two home runs, three RBIs and two runs. Sean Darnell also went 3-for-5 with a double and one run. Bryan went 2-for-4 with a homer, two RBIs and two runs. 

Jay Dill earned his first win of the season on the mound, striking out five batters and giving up one hit and no earned runs in three innings of work. Dylan King also pitched two innings and struck out two batters, while giving up no hits or runs. Adam Falinski pitched two innings and fanned three batters along with giving up two hits and one earned run. Cavill tallied seven putouts and one double play on defense. 

Troy is back at home this weekend for a Sun Belt Conference Series against Marshall March 28-30.