Troy eliminated from tournament

TROY — The quick turnaround after a tough loss Thursday night wasn’t kind for Troy on Friday.

The Trojans, which blew a late lead and fell to Western Kentucky 14-11 Thursday in a game that ended around 12:45 a.m. Friday morning, had to come back to the ballpark 12 hours later for an elimination game against UL-Monroe, which had been well-rested.
The Warhawks blasted three home runs and got a complete game pitching performance from Don Williams and eliminated host Troy from the Sun Belt Tournament, 16-1.

The Warhawks rocked starter Andrew Dickinson (2-2), scoring seven off him in 1 2/3 innings, and hit reliever Drew Hull just as hard, scoring six off him in one inning.

Ben Soignier hit a two-run homer in the first and a three-run homer in the second to push ULM’s lead to 7-0. His five RBIs gave him 70 for the season, a ULM school record.

Soignier said he and his roommate, first baseman Matt Collins, checked a computer right before they went to bed and found out they would be playing Troy Friday. He said most of his teammates probably didn’t know until they woke up.

“We’ve got some paw-paws on the team who go to bed early,” Soignier said. “They probably found out at breakfast this morning who we were playing.”

Troy roughed up Williams in an 8-4 win two weeks ago in the regular season, as the Trojans swept a home series from the Warhawks. Williams (6-2), who had a 6.28 ERA coming in, got his revenge, scattering eight hits over seven innings (the game ended after seven because of the 10-run mercy rule). He struck out five and threw 104 pitches.

He got plenty of help from his offense, which had 18 hits. Jordy Poche went 4-for-4 with four RBIs and a two-run homer in the third. His RBI single in the fourth gave ULM a 14-0 lead.

“We didn’t make pitches when we needed to, but I also think ULM is starting to get hot with the bats,” Troy head coach Bobby Pierce said. “They’ve got some very good hitters that can hurt you when you’re not making pitches.”

Pierce did point to the quick turnaround as a possible excuse for why his team didn’t play well, but didn’t place all blame on it.

“It’s easy to have that perception, especially the way the (WKU) game went (Thursday night),” Pierce said. “At the same time, we were really trying to win that game last (Thursday) and stay in the winner’s bracket, so we got out of sync on our pitching, but that win last night would have given us a chance to win the tournament.

“You can point the finger there, but I really think ULM got loose and in the flow. They pitched extremely well. Their offense was really on track in not only getting base hits but driving the ball.”

Troy’s only run came in the fifth, when Chad Watson hit his seventh triple of the year, a school record, and scored on Charley Williams’ groundout. First baseman Daryl Otwell and catcher Jake Sullivan each went 2-for-3.

Otwell said his teammates were ready to play despite not getting much sleep.

“We threw everything we had at them but it just didn’t go our way,” Otwell said. “The bad luck carried over to today and they were hitting everything we threw at them.”

For ULM, Perry Smith and Boomer Blanchard had three hits each. Soignier, Collins, Nick Wade and Jon Prevost each had two hits.

Troy went into the final two weekends with hopes of an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, but lost four of the last six to finish up at 33-23. The Trojans had an RPI of 62 entering Friday’s game and the loss to ULM, which had an RPI of 119, probably dropped that.

“I certainly haven’t given up all hope,” said Pierce, after thanking everyone who helped put on the tournament at Riddle-Pace Field. “But I think it would be a long shot for us to get in.”