Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

The Troy Trojans (17-10, 3-4) stumbled to a 14-4 loss to the Southern Miss Golden Eagles (17-9, 5-2) in the opening game of their Sun Belt Conference baseball series on Thursday.

Southern Miss jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the second inning and led 9-1 going into the fourth and never looked back.

Troy struggled at the plate, earning just six hits and three walks on the afternoon, while Southern Miss tallied 20 hits. Kyle Mock and Kole Myers each earned two hits on the day, while Aidan Gilroy hit a double and had three RBIs. Tremayne Cobb Jr., Mock, Blake Sutton and Mikey Bello scored one run each.

Luke Lyon earned his first loss on the mound, striking out one batter and giving up 11 hits and eight earned runs in two and 1/3 innings pitched. Michael Osmond struck out six and gave up six hits and three earned runs in three and 2/3 innings pitched.

“Sometimes you’d rather have a team pound you than have your hearts ripped out. All credit goes to Southern Miss,” Troy Coach Skylar Meade said. “They came out ready to go, and we didn’t execute whatsoever. We have to have good starting pitching, and we didn’t have that tonight. Luke’s been really good all year, and we thought the break would have him dialed in and calibrated to go. It didn’t work that way, and that’s just the nature of baseball. Southern Miss just pounded it around.”

Troy continues the series at Southern Miss on Friday and Saturday.