Rosebud-Lott made just enough mental mistakes to assist Troy’s cause.
Helped in large part by Jake McMurtry’s complete-game pitching, the Trojans took advantage of the miscues to beat the Cougars 4-3 in a District 25-2A baseball game Wednesday night.
“That’s a big win for us,” Troy coach Steve Sebesta said. “Even after last week’s big loss I think they knew they could come out here and compete at this level. I’m just proud of the way our kids responded under pressure situations.”
Troy (9-5) improved to 3-1 in 25-2A, while Rosebud-Lott (14-4) fell to 2-2.
In the first inning, the Trojans’ Dylan Sebek and Justin Gregory both reached on infield singles. With two outs and Gregory on second and Sebek on third, Cougars pitcher Chance Ryan got Trey Collier to hit into a potential inning-ending groundout. First baseman Dylan Myers appeared to lose sight of the thrown ball in the sun and dropped it, allowing Sebek and Gregory to come home for a 2-0 Troy lead.
Troy’s Ryan Dach led off the third inning by reaching base after shortstop Collin Wolf threw wide of first for an error. Dach eventually scored on Josh Fredrick’s single for a 3-0 lead.
In the fourth, Andrew Hines led off with a double and McMurtry had an infield single after Rosebud-Lott failed to cover first base.
Dach’s fielder’s choice eventually brought McMurtry home for a 4-0 lead.
“You can’t do that stuff against good teams and that’s exactly what we did,” Rosebud-Lott coach Keith Klaus said. “All those little things add up. Usually when we’ve lost that is the reason.”
Myers and Ryan scored in the fifth for the Cougars to trim the lead to 4-2.
After Rosebud-Lott’s Austin Pomykal singled to lead off the sixth, Alec Newman grounded out to short. During the throw, Pomykal broke for third and was thrown out by Dach, eliminating any threat.
In the seventh, another baserunning gaffe hurt Rosebud-Lott. Leadoff batter Collin Rabroker was called out for interference while running down the first-base line.
With runners on first and third, McMurtry worked his way out of the final jam by getting Matt Bell to ground out to short to end the game.
McMurtry (5-1), a senior right-hander, threw 133 pitches while allowing four hits and striking out nine batters in a complete game. He also picked off a runner and struck out Bell with the bases loaded in the third inning to end another threat.
“He probably threw more pitches than we wanted him to but it’s hard to take him out of there,” Sebesta said. “Jake’s a great competitor and handles those situations well.”
Ryan also pitched well, giving up just one earned run and striking out six in a complete game.
“The defense didn’t help him out early,” said Klaus, whose team committed three errors and had several other fielding lapses. “He was hitting his spots. He was pitching to a team that swings the bat pretty well and I thought he did a good job. He kept the ball in on them so he did his job.”
In the end, it was Rosebud-Lott’s defensive and baserunning mistakes that hurt the Cougars and helped Troy keep pace in the district race.
“In this district those are breaks that you have to get to win games,” Sebesta said. “When it came down to pressure time I think we handled the situation and got the next out.”
Today, Troy will play at Academy at 1 p.m. and Rosebud-Lott will host district-leading Salado at 7.
cmeister@temple-telegram.com
