MOBILE, Ala. - The sixth-seeded Troy Trojans scored the biggest hit of the tournament so far in the top of the 13th-inning when Trojan second baseman Garrett Pitts hit a sole homerun to give the Trojans a 4-3 lead and the eventual win over third-seeded Arkansas State in game three of the 2014 Sun Belt Conference Baseball Championship at Stanky Field in Mobile, Ala.
With the teams tied knotted at three runs each, Pitts launched a 2-0 fastball over the wall in left-center field, ultimately ending the 13-inning affair which tied for the longest game in Sun Belt tournament history. Troy's Shane McCain picked up his 100th-strikeout of the and became the first Trojan pitcher to post back-to-back 100-plus strikeouts.
Sun Belt Freshman of the Year, Marc Skinner, earned the win for the Trojans (25-30), who will now face the winner of Wednesday night's finale between tournament host South Alabama and UT Arlington on Thursday at 7:30 p.m CT.
Arkansas State (30-26) will face the loser of that game at 4:00 p.m. CT on Thursday.
Troy got off to a good start offensively. Clay Holcomb led off the game with a single to right and Jakob Nixon extended his reached base streak to 16 games with a walk. After Pitts sacrificed the runners to second and third, David Hall singles to center to score the game’s first run. The next batter, Ali Knowles, hit a deep fly ball to left field to score Nixon and hand the Trojans a 2-0 advantage.
In the third, Hall, Nick Masonia and Matthew Howard all walked to load the bases. With two outs, Adam Tewksbury hit a high chopper to the ASU third baseman and legged out an infield single, allowing Hall to cross and extend the lead to 3-0.
Things remained quite until the sevneth inning when the Red Wolves scratched a run across the board forcing Trojan head coach Bobby Pierce to make a pitching change. Skinner entered with a runner on first in the top of the ninth, walked a batter and then struckout the next A-State batter. Dustin Jones then singled for the Red Wolves scoring Kaleb Brown. With the tying run on third base, Ty Michelotti hit a fly ball deep enough to left to allow the runner to score and tie the game.
A-State had an opportunity to win the game in the 11th inning when it loaded the bases with two outs. Joe Schrimpf and Michelotti each reached on a walk, and Lucas Feddersen got on via an HBP, but Zach Maggio grounded out on a fielder’s choice for the final out of the inning.
The A-State bullpen was terrific on the night and surrendered just one run in 10 2/3 innings of work. Freshman Tyler Zuber (2-1) took the loss but made just one mistake in 4 2/3 inning.
Skinner remained in the game and pitched five innings in relief, earning the win (6-1) for the Trojans.