TROY, Ala. – Early on Friday afternoon, Little Rock looked every bit like the team that stormed through the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament and the Hattiesburg Regional.
The Trojans took the lead in the first inning, but Troy answered and pulled away for a 12-2 victory in Game 1 of the NCAA Super Regional before 6,426 fans at Riddle-Pace Field.
Little Rock now faces a must-win situation in Saturday's Game 2 at 2 p.m. broadcast on ESPN2 and 103.7 The Buzz. A Trojan victory would force a winner-take-all Game 3 on Sunday with a trip to the College World Series in Omaha on the line. The game time is to be determined.
Despite the loss, head coach Chris Curry said the focus immediately shifted toward winning the weekend.
"Good job by Troy winning the first game. The series is not over," Curry said. "One thing I told the team in the dugout is we're back to a three-game series. We play that 15 times during the year. The art of winning a weekend is if Friday doesn't go your way, you've got to flip the momentum and regroup, stay out of your feelings on Friday and make sure tomorrow we come out with a hot start and turn the momentum in our favor."
The loss snapped Little Rock's eight-game winning streak, a stretch that included five victories in six days to claim the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament championship and three consecutive wins to capture the Hattiesburg Regional. The Trojans remain one win away from extending the most successful postseason run in program history.
Little Rock struck first in the opening inning. Jerdy Lopez doubled and Kade Smith followed with a single before Blake Simpson delivered an RBI groundout to give the Trojans a 1-0 advantage.
Kade Smith paced the Little Rock offense, going 3-for-4 with a double and a run scored. Simpson drove in both Trojan runs, while Lopez and Trey Hill each doubled. Little Rock finished with seven hits but was unable to generate a rally after the third inning.
Brannon Westmoreland took the loss after allowing six runs, five earned, over 3.1 innings. Gage Haley provided 2.2 innings of relief, while Blake Van Cleve and Josh Beezley also saw action out of the bullpen.
Curry praised Haley's effort out of the bullpen and noted that a few mistakes against a hot offensive club proved costly.
"I thought Gage Haley, except for one pitch in the middle innings, threw the ball pretty well," Curry said. "We had a hanging slider and they did what hot teams do. They hit it hard."
Simpson said the Trojans have responded to adversity all season and expect to do so again Saturday.
"We've been through this quite a bit this year," Smith said. "We've lost the first game quite a bit, and we're just going to prepare like we always do and come out there with confidence. Historically, if you look at our weekends, we've won a lot of series after dropping Friday. There's a blueprint there for us."
Simpson echoed that confidence.
"Knowing we've been there before definitely gives us confidence," Simpson said. "We're just going to go out there and prepare like we always do. They threw two of their best left-handers today, and we're going to put together a better body of work tomorrow. We've won a lot of games in a row before this, so we'll rest up and come back tomorrow with fresh legs."
