Trojan offense proves to be its best defense vs. Holy Trinity

FORT MADISON ? From the first pitch of the game, Fairfield pounded away at Holy Trinity Wednesday night and never really stopped until the bus was fired up.

For their efforts, the Trojans tallied runs in five of six innings and ran away with a 16-4 non-conference victory paced by a 14-hit offensive explosion.

?I felt we did a much better job of executing tonight. We were swinging at good balls and laying off pitcher pitches,? said head coach Josh Allison. ?We had several clutch two out hits tonight to help propel the offense and it was good to see us swing the bats the way we did.?

The first two Holy Trinity pitches were put in play putting Lucas James on board with a single to be driven in minutes later by Dylan Gilpin?s double. Just as that was only the beginning for the Trojans, it was also only a start for Gilpin who reached base in all four plate appearances on the night going 3-3 with a walk. The senior clean up hitter also did just that ? cleaned up what was laid out in front of with four RBIs for the evening.

Along with Gilpin, the top of the order was solid for Fairfield including Cody Moran, James and Grant Liebe. Those top four batters accounted for 11 of the 16 Trojan runs and eight runs driven in including Liebe?s two-RBI double in the fourth inning. Moran ended up 1-2; James and Liebe were both 2-4 from the plate.

With an offense giving him all he needed, Jeremy Clark pitched all six innings and striking out seven while allowing six hits and the four runs. Only one of those runs was earned, however, due to a defense that committed five errors ? five too many according to Allison.

?If there was one negative thing from the game, it was the number of errors. We aren?t going to win very many games giving the other team five extra outs,? he said. ?Fielding and throwing the baseball is something we definitely have to clean up to improve our chances of winning.?

With some things to keep going and some things to improve upon, Fairfield is next scheduled for a trip to Albia on Friday night.