<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=28yZLv_0tN1cGtF00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=28yZLv_0tN1cGtF00" width="1280" height="853" ><figcaption>Appalachian State's Banks Tolley rounds third for one of the Mountaineers' seven runs in the seventh inning on Friday as Troy third baseman Aiden Gilroy (6) looks on. The Mountaineers beat the Trojans 10-6 in the Sun Belt Conference baseball tournament at Riverwalk Stadium in Montgomery. (Photograph by AJ Henderson / Sun Belt Conference) AJ Henderson / Sun Belt Conferen</figcaption></figure>A disastrous seventh inning vs. Appalachian State on Friday ended Troy’s stay in the Sun Belt Conference baseball tournament, and quite possibly its season.The Trojans lost 10-6 to the Mountaineers, who scored seven runs in an inning that saw six hits, four errors, two walks, a wild pitch and a botched rundown. Troy — which also lost to Southern Miss on Thursday — falls to 37-22 and awaits Monday’s NCAA Baseball Tournament Selection Show to see if it will have the opportunity to play on.“All credit goes to App State,” Troy coach Skylar Meade said. “They just handled the moment better. There’s really not much else to say, because I’m not the sugar-coating type. They just handled the game better. When you lose focus in tourney baseball and can’t compartmentalize, you can get burned. And that’s how we got burned.”Third-seeded Troy led 2-0 Friday before the top of the first inning ended, and scored in the sixth to tie the game at 3. But No. 6 Appalachian State (33-20-1) sent 12 men to the plate in the bottom of the seventh, which featured one calamity after another for the Trojans.After the first two Mountaineers reached by a single and a walk and Adam Quintero bunted them over, Hunter Wilder’s RBI single gave App State the lead for good at 4-3. But even that play had its quirks, as Troy failed to call timeout after throwing the ball into the infield and both runners moved up.After an intentional walk to load the bases, Austin St. Laurent singled home a run to make it 5-3. A wild pitch scored Wilder, and a wild throw back to the plate allowed Zamora to score as well to give the Mountaineers a 7-3 lead.Troy got St. Laurent in a rundown, but lost the ball on the tag and the runner was safe. After a strikeout, the Trojans appeared to be out of the inning when Banks Tolley grounded to third.But the throw was wild again, and St. Laurent scored for an 8-3 lead and Tolley went to second. CJ Boyd singled home Tolley to make it 9-3, and another wild relay throw moved Boyd all the way to third.Braxton Church followed with an RBI single to score Boyd for the seventh run of the inning.“I can’t remember every aspect of that inning,” Meade said. “I could, but I’m not going to re-live it. It just wasn’t good enough.”Troy put runners on base in all but one inning, but left 11 on. Before Kyle Mock’s 2-run double in the ninth cut the lead to 10-5, the Trojans were 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position and 0-for-16 with two outs (Mock scored on a wild pitch to set the final score).Troy also entered the ninth with just one hit, having reached via nine walks in the first eight innings. The first three batters of the game walked for the Trojans, scoring on Tremayne Cobb’s bases-loaded walk and Mock’s infield grounder.Troy added a third run in the sixth on Kole Myers’ sacrifice fly to tie the game at 3. App State got St. Laurent’s RBI groundout in the third and Xavier Moronta’s 2-run homer in the fourth.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=3CPTGm_0tN1cGtF00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=3CPTGm_0tN1cGtF00" width="1280" height="853" ><figcaption>Kole Myers is among seven members of Troy's starting lineup who are seniors. The Trojans were eliminated from the Sun Belt tournament on Friday and might have played their last game of the season. (Photograph by AJ Henderson / Sun Belt Conference) AJ Henderson / Sun Belt Conferen</figcaption></figure>Troy came into the tournament averaging nearly nine runs per game — tops in the Sun Belt — and having hit 83 home runs (third in the league). But in three games in Montgomery this week, they just managed 17 total runs and went deep only twice — a solo shot by Brooks Bryan vs. App State on Wednesday and a two-run blast by Will Butcher vs. Southern Miss on Thursday.“Our offense has been one of the best in college baseball the entire year,” Meade said. “People executed very well on us. We just weren’t very good offensively. I don’t say that as any sort of slant on us from an individual perspective — our preparation was good. We were fresh, our bat speed was fast. We just weren’t very good.“And certainly credit goes to the lock-in and focus by the other teams, by some of the plays that were made that end up changing the course of innings.”Troy used six pitchers, with all allowing at least one run. Grayson Stewart was the most effective, allowing two runs in 3 2/3 innings after starter Beau Fletcher — who had thrown 10 innings all season before Friday — gave up a run in 2 1/3.Clete Hartzog (7-4), Michael Osmond, Noah Manning and Brady Fuller all pitched in the App State seventh, with Fuller also working a scoreless eighth. Those four combined to give up seven runs on seven hits with two walks and two strikeouts.App State starter Tyler Tuthill was pulled after walking the game’s first three batters and was charged with two runs. Max Tramontana then went 2 1/3 scoreless and Grey LaSpaluto allowed a run in 2 2/3.Left-hander Ryan Sleeper (2-0) finished up for the Mountaineers, dominating before allowing three runs in the ninth. In total, he surrendered three runs on four hits with two walks and three strikeouts.“Obviously, no one wants to the bullpen to be in there in the first inning,” Sleeper said. “But it’s kind of what we rely on ourselves. Our coach says it all the time, ‘toughness wins ball games.’ Those guys went out there and showed it.”App State moves on to face second-seeded Southern Miss (39-18) at 9 a.m. Saturday, though the Mountaineers would have to beat the Golden Eagles twice to advance to Sunday’s championship game. Troy, meanwhile, plays the waiting game.The Trojans won 17 conference games this season, but were No. 54 in the NCAA’s RPI rankings heading into Friday’s game (<a href="http://warrennolan.com/">WarrenNolan.com</a> unofficially had them at 58 after Friday’s loss). <a href="https://d1baseball.com/stories/2024-d1baseball-field-of-64-projections-may-24/">D1Baseball.com</a> and <a href="https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/2024-ncaa-baseball-tournament-bracket-projected-field-of-64-conference-tournament-week/">Baseball America</a> each had Troy as one of the “first four out” in their Friday Field of 64 projections, with both slotting the Sun Belt’s Louisiana, Southern Miss and James Madison into the tournament and Baseball America also including Coastal Carolina.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2A9kCE_0tN1cGtF00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2A9kCE_0tN1cGtF00" width="1280" height="853" ><figcaption>Left-hander Ryan Sleeper pitched the final 4 1/3 innings of Appalachian State's 10-6 win over Troy in the Sun Belt tournament on Friday in Montgomery. (Photograph by AJ Henderson / Sun Belt Conference) AJ Henderson / Sun Belt Conferen</figcaption></figure>Meade, as you might expect, argued that the Trojans have an NCAA tournament resumé.“The Sun Belt is getting better and better,” Meade said. “I know there’s a lot of bids that are getting stolen out there. … We have a winning record in Quad 1. We went on the road, we attempted to challenge ourselves. We swept Coastal at their place. We won two of three against Louisiana, who won our league. We went up to Indiana in frigid temperatures and won two of three. … The problem that I have is we’re leaving it in other people’s hands, which is incredibly disheartening.”Failure to make the NCAA Regional field would mean the end of the line for more than a dozen Troy seniors, including seven who started on Friday. Myers, the Trojans’ senior leadoff hitter and center fielder, isn’t relishing the wait until Sunday.“It’s not the greatest feeling ever,” Myers said. “I wish we could have come in here and stuck to our plan and won the whole thing and it wouldn’t even been a question. … But all I can do is hope and pray that we get a chance. If we do, we’ll do some damage.”The NCAA Baseball Selection Show airs at 11 a.m. Central Monday on ESPN2.</div></body>

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Troy eliminated from Sun Belt tournament with 10-6 loss to App State; awaits possible NCAA berth

A disastrous seventh inning vs. Appalachian State on Friday ended Troy’s stay in the Sun Belt Conference baseball tournament, and quite possibly its season. The Trojans lost 10-6 to the Mountaineers, who scored seven runs in an inning that saw six hits, four errors, two walks, a wild pitch and a botched rundown. Troy — which also lost to Southern Miss on Thursday — falls to 37-22 and awaits Monday’s NCAA Baseball Tournament Selection Show to see if it will have the opportunity to play on.

Troy eliminated from Sun Belt tournament with 10-6 loss to App State; awaits possible NCAA berth

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