BOX SCORE  |  PHOTO GALLERY

JACKSONVILLE – Trae Santos had three hits and drove in four runs to lead Troy to a 13-5 win over Jacksonville State at Rudy Abbott Field on Wednesday evening.
 
Ryan Sorce (1-0)  picked up his first win of the season after allowing just one hit with four strikeouts in 2 1/3 innings on the mound for the Trojans. Michael Mason (0-1) gave up two runs and issued three walks in 1 2/3 innings to suffer his first loss of the year.
 
The Trojans (13-6) took the early lead after scoring three run in the top of the first inning after Santos and Garrett Pitts each drove in a run, and Santos later scored on a Gamecock error to give Troy a 3-0 lead.
 
Jax State (11-11) scored a run in the bottom of the first after Adam Miller singled up the middle and moved to second after Griff Gordon walked. Coty Blanchard then singled to right center to score Miller and cut the lead to 3-1.
 
The Gamecocks added a run in the third inning on a RBI single by Chase Silvani to cut the lead to 3-2, but the Trojans answered in the fourth after Logan Pierce had a RBI single to push the lead to 4-2.
 
Jax State took the lead in the fifth inning  after  Blanchard scored on a wild pitch, Paschal Petrongolo scored on a Troy error and Michael Bishop had a RBI double to give JSU a 5-4 lead.
 
The Trojans answered in the top of the sixth inning to tie the game on Pierce's infield grounder and took the lead on a RBI single to right center by Santos to give Troy a 6-5 lead.
 
Troy then scored six runs on four hits and took advantage of  a pair of Gamecock errors in the seventh inning to extended the lead to 12-5, and added another run in the ninth inning for the final margin.
 
Michael Bishop, Stephen Bartlett, Silvani and Blanchard each had two hits to lead the Gamecocks, while Tyler Vaughn and Matthew Howard each had two hits for Troy.
 
Jacksonville State returns to action on Wednesday in Tuscaloosa against Alabama, before returning to Ohio Valley Conference action with a three-game series at Austin Peay this weekend.