MOBILE, Ala. – It didn’t take long for Troy’s Trojans to shake the effects of their Thursday winner’s bracket semifinal loss at the Sun Belt Conference Softball Championships.
Audra Thompson made sure of that.
The Trojan first baseman launched just her second home run of the year, a three-run shot, in the top of the first inning Friday evening, and Troy never looked back in taking a 5-0 elimination game win over Georgia State.
The Trojans (31-20) remained alive and moved into the Friday late-night game against Coastal Carolina, a game scheduled to start just after 9 p.m. after a two-hour delay midway through Friday’s third game. That delay came just after Troy had increased its lead to 4-0 in the top of the fifth inning.
By that time, both starting pitchers had departed after a rash of illegal pitch calls. Troy starter Leanna Johnson was called for 10 illegal pitches and Georgia State pitcher was called nine times.
“I’m okay with falling behind. I’m not okay with the way it happened, on both sides,” said Georgia State coach Angie Nicholson, whose team finished at 21-33. “It just seemed like a nightmare, because it wasn’t fun for either team. I don’t like seeing their pitcher being called, I don’t like our pitcher being called. It just changes everything. I don’t like how that just changed everything on both sides. It’s no excuse, it just changes everything.”
The Panthers only managed two hits, with Skylar Chaves singling off Johnson in the second inning and eventually reaching third base, and Sophie Mooney lacing a leadoff double off Trojan reliever Libby Baker.
Baker (9-5) struck out six in five innings of relief, allowing the lone hit and only three baserunners including two walks in the final inning before getting a final ground-ball out.
“She definitely kept us down,” Nicholson said of Baker. “It was good that both pitchers came in and weren’t called for the illegal itches that the two starting pitchers were called for.”
Walks to Taylor McKinney and Blake Gibson with two outs preceded Thompson’s first-inning blast that made it 3-0. The lead reached four runs in the fourth when Logan Calhoun led off with a double and scored on an errant throw on Jade Sinness’ sacrifice bunt.
Lightning in the area then forced the delay that ended up lasting two hours and eight minutes, and when play resumed Gibson’s sacrifice fly scored Sinness with the game’s final run. Adams retired the final seven batters she faced, but the damage was done by that time.
“Losing never feels good,” Nicholson said, “and when it’s the last one, it’s the end of the road, it’s tough because you’re never going to have that team again. It makes things not fun.”