Little Rock Wins Series Against Troy

LITTLE ROCK – An eighth-inning comeback was the difference as Little Rock baseball (11-11, 4-4 Sun Belt) clinched the series with Troy (13-11, 3-5) by a score of 4-3 on Friday night at Gary Hogan Field.
 
Nik Gifford, Cameron Knight and Zach Baker each finished the night 2 for 4. Knight earned Little Rock's only RBI for the night and had a run.
 
Dalton Thomas extended his hitting streak to 18 games, the longest for a Little Rock player since at least 1998, as he went 1 for 4 with a run.
 
Troy put the first run on the board in the top of the second inning. With one out, T.J. Binder was hit by a pitch, then advanced to second as Chase Smartt walked. Cameron Sanders singled through the right side, but the lead runner held up at third to load the bases. Justin Friend hit a sacrifice fly to right field as Binder scored to put Troy up 1-0.
 
Little Rock tied the game in the bottom of the fourth. With one out, a pair of singles from Gifford and Knight put runners on the base paths. Kyle Kirk grounded a ball to short as Knight was forced out at second. When trying to turn a double play, the second baseman threw the ball wide to first and allowed Gifford to score as Kirk reached on the fielder's choice.
 
With one out in the top of the fifth, Troy's Shaw Pinnell hit a bunt single to get on base. Brandon Lockridge moved Pinnell over on a sacrifice bunt before Pinnell stole third. Payton Fuller hit an RBI single through the left side to put Troy up 2-1.
 
Little Rock starter Cory Malcom had his best outing of the season as he went 6.0 innings with four strikeouts while allowing four hits, two earned runs and two walks on 96 pitches. Jarrid Garcia came on for Malcom to begin the seventh and worked efficiently as he earned two strikeouts and a pop up on just 12 pitches.
 
Keenan Wingfield came on to begin the eighth and quickly got himself into a jam after walking two and hitting a batter to load the bases. Trevor Davis hit into a fielder's choice to third as the throw came home to get the force out. Dylan Slayton (1-1) made his way into the game with one out and bases still loaded. Slayton was effective as he struck out the first batter he faced and got a fly out to right to end the inning.
 
Troy starter Grant Bennett (3-1) pitched well into the eighth inning before being pulled. Thomas got Little Rock started with a single to left before advancing to second on a Gifford ground out. Knight came up with the RBI single to tie the game at 2-2 as Thomas scored. Knight advanced to second on a ground out by Kirk before Troy finally went to the bullpen in favor of Marc Skinner. Riley Pittman then reached and advanced to second on a throwing error to first by the Troy third baseman. In the meantime, Thomas rounded third and scored the go-ahead run. Christian Reyes came on to pinch run for Pittman before Reyes moved to third on an infield single by Baker. With Hayden Martin at the plate, Baker stole second to put both runners in scoring position. Martin then reached on an error by Troy's second baseman as Reyes scored to put Little Rock up 4-2.
 
Cody McGill came on to close out the game for Little Rock in the top of the ninth inning. A quick inning wasn't in the cards for McGill as he hit Sanders with a pitch to begin the inning, then allowed a walk on five pitches. Pinnell then reached on a throwing error to first by McGill to load the bases. Lockridge hit a sacrifice fly to center as Sanders scored to put Troy within a run at 4-3. As McGill got Fuller swinging for the second out, runners pulled off the double steal to put the go-ahead run at second. With a 1-1 count, McGill earned his fourth save of the season with a pop up to first to end the game.
 
The victory gave Little Rock back-to-back series wins for the first time since the end of the 2014 season and gave the program a five-game winning streak.
 
Little Rock will look for the series sweep of Troy and its first six-game winning streak since 2012 tomorrow at 1 p.m., at Gary Hogan Field.