Trojans Split Sunday Doubleheader at Tennessee Tech

COOKEVILLE, Tenn.  — Little Rock baseball splits Sunday's doubleheader games against Tennessee Tech on the road to drop the season-opening series at Bush Stadium.
 
In game one, the Trojans (1-2) evened the series with a  7-4 victory over the Golden Eagles (2-1). They were lead behind the hitting at the bottom of the order who combed for six RBIs. Troy Alexander in the seven spot went 3-4 at the plate with three runs and one RBI while Eldrige Figueroa hit behind him going 2-3 with 3 RBIs and Christian Reyes finishing off with 2 RBIs off of 1-3 hitting.
 
"On a day where the top of the lineup didn't do as much, the bottom of the lineup did a great job," head coach Chris Curry said. "I thought Troy Alexander was very good with an aggressive bat at the plate and I'm very happy with the play of freshman Figueroa who got a bunt down early to set up a Reyes sac-fly. He also got a big two out, two RBI base hit late in the game."
 
Justin Garcia completed a near three-inning save striking out four hitters and letting up zero hits on 11 batters faced, including a huge eighth inning where he struck out the side in 1-2-3 fashion.
 
Cole Townsend started the game off solid for the Trojans throwing 4.1 innings — giving up three runs off five hits, striking out three, walking one and giving up a solo homerun.
 
Donavin Buck (1-0) gained the win for Little Rock after coming into the game in the fifth inning only up 4-3 after Townsend gave up the solo homerun to right. Buck gave up a single to the first batter but retired the next two to get them out of the inning.
 
"Once again our bullpen was lights out starting with combination of Buck, Brown and Daily," Curry said. "And then Garcia was unbelievable making big time pitches out there for close to three innings."
 
The story was turned in game number three of the series as the Tennessee Tech offense really show its firepower in scoring nearly every inning, beating Little Rock 17-7.
 
The power bats of the Trojans were not dormant though as they were able to get seven runs off nine hits. Riley Pittman, Kale Emshoff, and Alexander each smashed two-run home runs which were the first for each on the season.
 
"What was encouraging in game three was the way our team never stopped fighting, never stopped swinging and never stopped answering," Curry said. "I don't know if in the past we would have done that."
 
The struggle was with the pitching for the Trojans where the Golden Eagles went off for 15 hits. It started with sophomore McKinley Moore who got the loss throwing just three innings and giving up five hits and four walks.
 
"We had to go to the bullpen early and some guys were not able to find the strike zone," Curry said. Tennessee Tech took advantage of it with big hits with multiple runs in multiple innings."
 
Little Rock will continue its four game road trip to open the season against in-state opponent Central Arkansas on Tuesday, Feb. 20 for game one of the Rock "n" Roar Rivalry series.