The Spartans headed into a double-header against conference rival Troy trying to start a winning streak and move on from last week’s travesty. The first game, Troy and Central were deadlocked at no score, but heading into the third, the Trojans lit up the Spartan’s pitching with four runs. Three innings later, Central would try and fight back, garnering two runs, but unfortunately, that was it. Despite being out-hit four to five, Troy won the first game 4-2.

The second game, however, was one for the ages. The Spartans came in as losers of four straight games, and if they were to start a winning streak, beating Troy was their top priority. Both teams started off scoring one run in their respective appearances in the first inning, and both scored one run again in the third. Central tacked on another run in the fourth to make it a 3-2 lead going into the sixth. Troy bounced back with a run of their own to tie it up.

In the seventh and final inning, with the potential winning run on base, junior Troy Newell smacked the ball past the Troy fielders and with a walk off hit, the Spartans pulled off the victory 4-3. The Spartans also outhit the Trojans nine to eight, and only committed one error to Troy’s three. Afterwords, Newell was, to say the least, excited.

“It definitely felt overdue it felt real good coming off the bat and was great feeling getting the win,” Newell said.

Newell, who has done a good job pitching this year as well, said teamwork and stellar pitching by senior Clayton Luley also played a big role in the victory.

“First of all, Clayton Luley threw a great game and it felt great when we could come together as a team to get him his first win of the year,” Newell said.

Despite the win, which moves the Spartans to a record of 6-9, Newell says work still needs to be done for the team to have more success in the future.

“As a team we need to work on getting more hits and making sure we can get the fundamentals down 100 percent of the time,” Newell explained.

The Spartans next game is against Holt tomorrow night at T.R Hughes Ballpark, and Newell says heading into this game, there is one thing they are aiming to do.

“At this level of baseball, a single play can determine the final outcome of a game,” Newell said. “Heading into this game we are going to focus on doing the little things correctly and as always try to minimize the amount of mistakes that can be made.”

With the second half of the season underway, the Spartans look to get back to over .500 and make a strong push to the playoffs.