Levi Thomas tossed seven stellar innings and Troy tallied 12 hits en route to defeating in-state rival South Alabama, 6-2 in Sun Belt Conference baseball action on Friday night at Stanky Field.

The Trojans’ (28-27, 15-14 Sun Belt) bats came alive early in the contest as four of their first five hits were for extra bases forcing the Jaguars’ (30-24, 16-14 Sun Belt) starter Patrick McBride (3-3) night to end after the second inning.

Thomas earned the win to improve to 7-2 on the season after giving up just one run off eight hits with eight strikeouts on the night.

The highlight of Thomas’ performance was getting out of a bases loaded jam in the sixth inning with no outs by getting a fly out to left field then forcing a 6-4-3 double play.

At the plate, Chase Smartt led the Trojans with a 3-for-5 outing with two doubles, an RBI and a run scored. Sadler Goodwin and Reed Smith both tallied a pair of hits with Goodwin adding a run and Smith posting an RBI and a walk to their stat lines.

Troy struck early as Drew Frederic and Smartt each hit an RBI-double to take a 2-0 lead after the first. Smith hit an RBI-double in the second and Logan Cerny and Manning Early tallied RBI-singles in the third to give the Trojans a commanding 5-0 lead after three.

The Trojans’ final run came off a sacrifice fly in the fifth from Early. The Jaguars’ runs came off a bases-loaded walk in the seventh and a solo home run in the ninth.