Troy beats South Alabama to open tournament

TROY — With a series loss fresh on their minds, Troy gave South Alabama a taste of its own medicine Wednesday night.

The Trojans, who saw the Jaguars pound out hit after hit in winning the first two of a three-game set in Mobile last week, made noise of their own with the bat in the first round of the Sun Belt Tournament, getting 14 hits in a 10-4 win.

“Losing two of three down there fueled our minds,” Troy second baseman Trevor Tyre said. “We wanted to get back there and get back at them.”

Troy (33-21), the third seed, will play Western Kentucky at 7:30 p.m. today. South Alabama (25-29), seeded sixth, will play No. 7 UL-Monroe at 12:30 p.m. in an elimination game.

Every Trojan starter had a hit. Tyre, Adam Bryant, Chad Watson, Ryan Ditthardt and Miles Hoyle had two each. Henry drove in four runs, and Tyre drove in three. Both are fifth-year seniors.

“We got a bunch of people on base and got enough of them in,” Troy head coach Bobby Pierce said. “We took advantage of enough of those to get an early win.”

South Alabama got a run off Troy starter Travis Burge in the first, but Troy came out swinging against Jaguar starter Miles Etheridge, knocking him out of the
game after eight batters. Tyre doubled in Charley Williams, who reached on a double of his own. After Ditthardt singled, Henry, a Mobile native, blasted a three-
run homer over the wall in right center to give Troy a 4-1 lead.

The Jaguars scored two in the second, and reliever Greg Johnson kept the Trojan bats at bay until midway through the game. But he hit Tyre with a pitch with
the bases loaded in the fourth and gave up an RBI single to Steven Felix in the fifth. Troy scored three times in the sixth as Tyre doubled in a run, Ditthardt
tripled in Tyre and Henry drove in a run with a groundout.

Troy made it 10-4 in the seventh on Bryant’s RBI double.

Burge picked up the win, pitching into the seventh and giving up eight hits and four runs. From the third to the seventh, Burge retired 12 straight Jaguars until
Nathaniel Lami blooped a two-out single to left.

Burge’s two-seam fastball kept South Alabama hitters at bay, as not many Jaguars had hard-hit balls off the senior lefty.

He threw 90 pitches, struck out two, and could pitch Saturday if needed.

“That’s the best I’ve seen him pitch in a while,” Tyre said. “He had his changeup working, his curve ball, and his fastball had some life on it.”

Tim Wheeler threw 1 1/3 innings of relief, and Robby Loew pitched a perfect ninth.

Brandon Brown had three of South Alabama’s four RBIs — two off a bloop double in the second and one off the high wall in right field, which is just 310 feet
from home plate. Brown and Clint Reynolds had two hits each for the Jaguars.