Pierce Slam Lifts Trojans Past FIU 9-5

Saturday, April 9

Riddle-Pace Field

7:00 pm

Troy University

Florida International University

Photo by: Edward Fieder

4/9/2011 10:32:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

By: Ricky Hazel

FINAL BOX SCORE: PDF | HTML POST-GAME AUDIO

Troy sophomore Logan Pierce apparently enjoys playing on television.

After hitting a grand slam and driving in seven runs on Tuesday night against Auburn, Pierce brought the Trojans from behind against FIU on Saturday evening with his second slam of the week as Troy took a 9-5 victory to win their eighth consecutive series of the year.

Both games were televised by CSS and are the only games scheduled for TV coverage during the season.

“Tonight was an amazing come-from-behind win and we haven't been tested like that very often,” Troy assistant coach Mark Smartt said. “We need to see if we can get CSS to hang around because he has hit two grand slams this week with them here.”

Troy improved to 25-5 overall with the victory and 10-1 with their ninth consecutive Sun Belt Conference win. FIU falls to 19-15 overall and 4-7 in league play. The teams will conclude their weekend series on Sunday with the first pitch scheduled for 1 p.m.

The Trojans were down 5-3 in the seventh inning when Pierce came to the plate against FIU reliever Mason McVay (0-1) with the bases loaded. After driving in a pair of runs in Friday's 4-0 victory, he already had a two-run single on Saturday.

Adam Bryant and T.J. Rivera opened the Troy seventh with consecutive singles. A sacrifice bunt by Tyler Hannah was followed by a walk to Blake Martz to load the bases. After a visit to the mound by FIU pitching coach Sean Allen, McVay grooved a fastball to Pierce on the first pitch, and the Troy first baseman blasted it over the wall in left for a grand slam.

“To be behind late in the game and see Bryant start an inning, T.J. get a hit, move them over and have them pitch around Martz all the way to get a left-on-left situation with Logan,” Smartt said. “He came through in a big way and you have to tip your cap to him for hitting the slam the other way. He is really swinging the bat well.”

The blast made a winner of the Trojans' fourth hurler of the night, sophomore Nathan Hill (2-0). Troy had to piece together the game on the mound after starter Drew Hull was lifted in the third inning with elbow pain.

Rivera capped the night for the Trojans with a two-run homer in the eighth inning and Tyson Workman came on to close out the win.

“Logan is my roommate and it is really incredible what he has been doing,” Rivera said. “I am just hoping some of that will rub off on me. He has been working very hard and has gotten his swing working very good right now. Hopefully it will continue for the rest of the season.”

Early on, the game was a back-and-forth battle.

FIU scored its first run of the weekend in the third inning when Hull, who made his school record 75th career appearance, walked two and hit a batter to lead the bases. After giving up a sacrifice fly to Garrett Wittles to score the run, Hull was replaced by Ryan Sorce, who got a ground out to end the inning.

“We had talked a little this week about games like this with adversity because we haven't had much of that,” head coach Bobby Pierce said. “We had some of that tonight when Drew had to come out early, so we had to piece it together. We got down early, but I really like the way our team responded.”

Troy answered that run with three in the bottom of the inning. Bryant walked and scored on a throwing error by FIU starting pitcher R.J. Fondon. After a sacrifice bunt moved Rivera and Hannah into scoring position, Pierce ripped a hit into left-center to score them both.

FIU cut the Trojans' lead to 3-2 in the fourth when the Panthers' Rudy Flores scored on a throwing error by Rivera.

The Panthers went back on top in the sixth innings when Jeremy Patton opened the frame with a single and went to third on a double by Mike Martinez. After Garrett McHenry came on in relief of Sorce, he got a strikeout before a wild pitch scored Patton and a sacrifice fly scored Martinez.

McHenry walked T.J. Shantz to lead off the FIU seventh and Pablo Bermudez drove him home off Hill for a 5-3 Panthers' lead.

Pierce and Rivera, who are roommates, did most of the damage for the Trojans. Pierce drove in six with three hits in the game while Rivera had four hits, including a homer, and scored three times. Josh McDorman also had a pair of hits in the game for Troy.

“It has been a career-type of week,” Pierce said of his son. “You can't continue to have games like this, but when you have a week like he is having, you will get a lot of attention. What I am pleased with is the fact that he stayed with his approach, even when he wasn't getting balls to fall in. A lot of guys will press during that, and he did a little, but he got right back to his approach. It is going his way right now and he has to enjoy the moment while still keeping his head on straight.”

Bermudez and Flores had two hits each for FIU, which had just seven hits in the game.