Southern Miss
Troy
Baseball Evens Series at Troy with Solid Pitching
2/26/2011 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Feb. 26, 2011
TROY, Ala. - Sophomore Geoffrey Thomas put together his second consecutive strong pitching outing to lead Southern Miss past Troy 4-1 at Riddle-Pace Field here Saturday afternoon.
The Golden Eagles look to win the series as they play the final contest, Sunday, at 1 p.m. The game can be heard on Rock 104 (104.5, WXRR-FM) with the pregame show beginning at 12:30 p.m.
Thomas limited the Trojans (5-1) to just three hits and three walks over seven innings and surrendered just one unearned run while fanning five in the contest. It was his second-straight seven inning performance as he improved to 2-0 on the year.
Thomas' only blemish came in the second. After a leadoff strikeout, Blake Martz hit a high popup in the infield in which first baseman Adam Doleac overran and fell to the ground which allowed the hitter to get to second. After a flyout to move Martz up to third, Todd McRae registered his first hit of the series with an RBI single.
The Golden Eagles then tied the game in the top of the third as freshman Joe Martin collected a home run with his first collegiate hit in his first start as a Southern Miss player.
Southern Miss then strung together four straight singles to start the fifth to get the lead for good. After Tyler Koelling led off the frame with single to extend his hitting streak to 18 games, B.A. Vollmuth singled to left to plate Koelling who had moved up to second on his at bat when the throw was wide to try and throw him out on his single.
Mark Ellis then ended the four-straight single streak to drive home a run and make the score 3-1.
Isaac Rodriguez ended the game's scoring with an RBI groundout in the sixth, plating Vollmuth who reached with a single and then went around the bases on an error and then a sacrifice, before scoring on the groundout.
In the sixth, the Golden Eagles chased Troy starter Ryan Sorce (0-1), who allowed four runs (three earned) on six hits with three strikeouts in suffering the loss. Shane McCain threw the final 3 2/3 and allowed just one walk and struck out three.
Defensively, it was double plays that got the Eagles going down the stretch. Southern Miss, which led the country in twin killings in each of the last two years, turned three in the game. They got one in the sixth, seventh and ninth to end the contest.
Collin Cargill, who entered the game with no outs in the ninth and no one out, allowed a single before getting a flyout and ground ball double play to end the game. Cargill earned his second save of the campaign.
Southern Miss (6-1) now has 12 doubles plays through the first seven games.
