TROY — The Troy Trojans would like to come down with a case of selective amnesia after the last couple of days.
“After winning five straight, we’ve kind of gotten off track a little bit,” Troy coach Dan Cain said. “Hopefully we can forget the last two days and focus on our big league game against Sidney (today).”
Troy (5-4, 1-2 Greater Western Ohio Conference North Division) struggled to figure out the power pitching of Fairborn’s Courtnie Spain Tuesday but still managed to find ways to threaten. But a costly two-run error in the fourth inning took some of the edge off late, and the Skyhawks closed out a 4-1 victory at Market Street Diamond.
Already up 2-0 in the top of the fourth, a Fairborn runner reached on an error with one out and stole second. A two-out single by Sophie Bolser brought in the run, and Bolser took off for second on the throw home. Troy had a shot to get her, but the throw went into center field, allowing Bolser to come all the way around to score and make it a 4-0 game.
“We make that throw into center field, and they score two runs off of it,” Cain said. “They didn’t make any mistakes, and we only made a couple.”
It made a difference, too. The Trojans got a run in the bottom of the fifth after Mackenzie Dankworth led off with a walk and came home on a double down the line by Shelby Schultz. In the bottom of the seventh, Troy put runners on first and second with one out, but Spain forced a pop to second and got her eighth strikeout to end the game.
“If those two runs (in the fourth) don’t score, maybe they’re feeling a little pressure with two runners on in the seventh,” Cain said.
Spain gave up three hits in the game for the Skyhawks (9-2, 2-0 GWOC North), struck out eight, walked four and gave up three hits.
“She walked a few more than we’d like — we’d like to see eight strikeouts and no walks. But when she puts herself in trouble, she works out of it,” Fairborn coach Bob Shively said. “She battles.”
Alicia Simpson and Haley Gwin had Troy’s other two hits, but twice in the game Fairborn catcher Jessie Little threw out Trojan runners trying to steal third base.
“The first time they just made a good play, but the second time we missed a sign,” Cain said. “No one out, a left-handed batter up and a runner on second, I didn’t give the steal sign and the runner thought I did.”
Fairborn didn’t fare much better on the basepaths as Troy threw out Skyhawks at the plate twice in the game — once as the Skyhawks tried to catch the Trojan infield asleep in the first inning, then again in the sixth inning on an outfield assist from Gwin in center.
Bolser was 3-for-4 with an RBI double for Fairborn, Little was 3-for-4 with an RBI, Kylie Wallace was 2-for-4 and Keyanna Spratling had an RBI single.
“I’m happy with where we are right now,” Shively said. “We’re still not playing as well as we can, but we’ve got some people hurt and I’ve got three freshmen playing right now. We’re battling through it.”
Megan Vanchure got the loss for Troy, giving up four hits, walking one, striking out one and allowing two runs. Brooke Evans pitched 4.2 solid innings of relief, giving up six hits and a pair of unearned runs.
Troy — which lost 8-0 to Wayne Monday, snapping a five-game winning streak — travels to Sidney today to face the reigning GWOC North champ.
“We were on the ball a little more tonight. We were a little more enthusiastic,” Cain said. “It was a better effort than last night (against Wayne). We just need to forget the last two days.”
