The Troy Trojans (21-16, 3-6) had a tough weekend on the road, falling in three straight games in a Sun Belt Conference softball series against the ULM Warhawks (26-13, 7-2) by a combined three runs. 

All three games were decided by one run with ULM taking two contests with walk-off singles.

Troy lost a close game in the opener of the series by a score of 2-1 on March 28. The game was scoreless going into the sixth inning when ULM’s Maryssa Zenzen hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the inning to put the Warhakws up 2-0. Troy answered with a solo homer from Caiden Oliva to cut the lead to 2-1 in the top of the seventh but the Trojans could not get back into scoring position after that. 

For Troy, Reaghan Oney went 2-for-3 at the plate, while Oliva hit the home run. Alyssa Faircloth pitched all six innings and struck out four batters, while giving up five hits and two earned runs. Oliva also earned eight putouts and one assist with no fielding errors on defense. 

In game two, ULM once again escaped with a one-run win, taking the series with a 6-5 victory on March 29. This time, Troy jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning but ULM answered by scoring five runs in the third and fourth innings to go up 5-3. In the top of the fifth, Troy answered when Makaley Boswell hit a two-run homer that tied things up 5-5. In the bottom of the seventh, however, ULM’s Elle Carter hit an RBI single for the walk-off win. 

For Troy, Boswell went 3-for-4 at the plate with a homer, three RBIs and two runs. Taylor McKinney went 2-for-4 with a run and Annie Orman hit a double. Oliva and Reese Green scored one run each. 

Mya Holt pitched three and 2/3 innings and struck out a batter, while giving up seven hits and three earned runs. Savannah Money also spent three innings in the circle and fanned one batter, while giving up four hits and no earned runs. Oliva earned 12 putouts and one double play on defense with no errors. 

ULM closed out the series with an 8-7 win in game three on March 30, earning the sweep in walk-off fashion once again. For the second consecutive game Troy jumped out to a big lead, going up 4-0 in the top of the first, but ULM scored two runs in the bottom of the first and one in the third inning to cut the Trojan lead to 4-3. 

Troy extended its lead to 5-3 in the top of the fourth but the Warhawks answers with three runs in the bottom of the fourth inning to take its first lead of the day 6-5. ULM added another run in the sixth to go up 7-5. Troy’s Annie Orman then hit a two-run homer in the top of the seventh to tie things up 7-7. In the bottom of the seventh, ULM’s Carys Platt hit a walk-off single to drive the winning run in. 

“It was a gut-wrenching weekend for us to have three games and three one-run losses,” Troy Coach Eric Newell said. “Two of the three were walk off wins. Today, there were some things again that we did positively, but we just got outplayed here at ULM. They were just a little bit better than us in every category and executed when they needed to.”

For Troy, Boswell went 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run, while Oney went 2-for-3. Both Orman and McKinney hit home runs. Faircloth pitched three innings and struck out a pair of batters along with giving up five hits and two runs. Oliva tallied five putouts and one assist with no errors on defense. 

Troy remains on the road for a non-conference doubleheader at West Georgia on April 2 at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. The Trojans are back at home for a conference series this weekend against Louisiana April 4-6.