Back on track: Trojans regain offensive form in 11-2 route of the Florida A&M Rattlers
Published 10:22 pm Wednesday, March 16, 2016
The Troy Trojans bounced back from a series loss to Georgia State with an 11-2 win over Florida A&M on Wednesday.
The win improves the Trojans’ record to 17-7 (1-2 in the Sun Belt Conference).
“We struggled this weekend the girls struggled offensively,” said Troy head coach Beth Mullins. “They made a lot of adjustments at practice and got the monkey of our backs.”
FAMU jumped out in the first inning when lead off batter Jessi Nathan sent freshman starter Peyton Glover’s first pitch of the game over the wall in left center.
The Trojans offense picked up four runs in the bottom of the first. Kate Benton and Erica Davis scored on two separate wild pitches. The Trojans closed out their scoring with a sacrifice fly by Ashley Rainey and a double by Khadija Neely.
The Trojans scored three more runs in the third. Carli Kayler doubled in Bailey Burk; Davis hit a sacrifice fly to center field scoring Kayler; and Hannah Day singled through the left side scoring Benton.
After scoring just three runs over the weekend the offense broke out on Wednesday.
“It’s huge,” Mullins said. “We try to have quality at bats back-to-back. When you do that, you’re going to score runs. We ran the bases really well. We were really aggressive. When we are swinging the bats well we can score a lot of runs at one time.”
Glover gave up just two runs, only one of which was earned.
“She has done a great job,” Mullins said. “Over the last few weeks she has gotten a lot better. I thought today was a good day for her to have a quality start. She kept us in the ball game and our offense took over.”
The Trojans closed out their strong offensive performance in the bottom of the fourth with four more runs to go up 11-1 over the Rattlers. Becca Hartley reached on an error, scoring Jordan Gray and scoring herself on a throwing error during the same play. Kayler walked and advanced to third, scoring on a Davis single to right field. Benton scored the final run on a wild pitch.
Benton finished 3-3 at the plate with a walk. Davis finished 2-2 with a pair of runs batted in.
The Trojans will be back in action on Saturday when they travel to Boone, North Carolina, to take on Appalachian State 12 p.m.
“Conference is always huge,” Mullins said. “It doesn’t matter who you play, we have a great conference. The plan is to bring the same pitching and quality at bats we had today.”