Troy University Athletics
Campbell Visits For Weekend Baseball Series
3/31/2005 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Troy Trojans (18-8, 6-3 A-Sun)
vs. Campbell (13-11, 2-4 A-Sun)
Troy, Ala. • Riddle-Pace Field (2,000)
Friday, April 1 • 6:00 pm
Saturday, April 2 • 1:00 pm (DH)
With a successful March now in the rear-view mirror of the 2005 season, the Troy Trojans enter April in a battle for the Atlantic Sun Conference title. Nationally-ranked UCF leads the league and the Trojans must focus on keeping pace with the Knights until the two teams meet the first week of May.
The next hurdle for the Troy squad is a Campbell team that has lost its last two games after taking the Easter weekend off. The Camels took two of three from Florida Atlantic after getting swept by UCF in league play.
The Trojans enter the weekend series off a hard-fought victory over Birmingham-Southern, a 2004 NCAA Regional team. In that game, senior Adam Godwin became Troy's all-time leader in both season and career stolen bases. He is now tied for the A-Sun season record and is on his way toward the NCAA mark.
Godwin's 47 stolen bases this season rank first in all of college baseball. His closest competitor is Alcorn State's Corey Wimberly, who has 33 steals. There are only 11 other players nationally with as many as 20 stolen bases this year.
Senior starters Landon Brazell (5-1, 2.83) and Brent Adcock (5-1, 2.79) have both put up consecutive complete game performances in A-Sun play.
That duo will start the first two games of the series against Campbell with freshman left-hander Steven Morelock (4-3, 4.45) slated to start the final game of the series. Morelock has struggled in his last two outings, having allowed 13 runs on 14 hits. Should he falter, junior Tony Falls will be waiting in the wings. Falls has been outstanding in his last five outings, posting a 2.03 ERA.
Campbell's starters for the weekend series are undecided. The Camels two top starters so far this season have been sophomore LHP Nate Logan (2-1, 5.23) and junior RHP Lincoln Smith (3-3, 6.99).
The All-Time Series
The Trojans lead the all-time series, which started in 1996, 13-7. Troy is 7-2 against the Camels at Riddle-Pace Field, including sweeps in 1999 and 2001. The Trojans took three of four from Campbell last year, including a 13-11 win in the Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament.
The Coaches
Troy
- Bobby Pierce (Alabama, ?˜82) is in his third season at Troy and has an 81-57 record after guiding the Trojans to a 36-22 record a year ago. In Pierce's second season, Troy finished fifth in the A-Sun regular season race and then advanced to the championship round of the conference tournament. In his career as a head coach, Pierce has won 616 games in his 17 seasons as a collegiate head coach, including 259 at Chipola (Fla.) Junior College. His record at four-year schools stands at 357-165 and he is in his 10th season.Campbell - Chip Smith (Virginia Tech, 1980) is in his 10th season as the Camels head coach after coaching at Pfeiffer College for nine seasons. He has a career record of 408-435-2 including a 236-282-1 record at Campbell.
On the Air
The Troy Network, with Barry McKnight providing play-by-play, will carry all three games of the Campbell series on WTBF-FM. The games will also be available on the internet at www.TroyTrojans.com.
Trojans Baseball Notebook
Noting The Trojans Offense
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Situational hitting are buzz words around the Troy dugout, and even through the team was hitless in five at bats with runners in scoring position on Tuesday night against Birmingham-Southern, the team did an excellent job in situational hitting. The Trojans delivered two sacrifice flies in the game, and twice advanced runners with ground outs to the right side.t
Senior Chase Amis broke out of his hitting slump last week. After hitting safely in each of the first six games this season, he had hit safely in just 5-of-14 going into last Wednesday. The Denham Springs, La., native was hitless in 19 at bats before getting three hits in the two games against Alabama A&M and UAH. Amis still has just two hits in Atlantic Sun Conference play this season.t
It is easy to tell the games Troy has lost from looking at the stat sheets. During the loss to Lipscomb on March 12, the Trojans were 1-for-12 at the plate with runners in scoring position. Over the last six losses, going back to the first meeting with Auburn, Troy is 7-for-55 (.127) at the plate with runners in scoring position. In 14 wins over that same stretch the Trojans are 42-for-155 with runners in scoring position, a .271 average.t
During the entire 2004 season only two Troy players had more than five home runs -- Casey O'Quinn with six and Henry Gutierrez with seven. Through 26 games this year, Gutierrez has already surpassed his 2004 production while Clint Robinson and Nick Smith have seven home runs each. As a team, the Trojans have 35 homers, a total it took last years' club 51 games to reach.t
Junior Nick Smith entered the Belmont series with a 10-game hitting streak, the second longest on the team this year, but had it snapped with an 0-for-5 in the series opener. Henry Gutierrez had an 11-game streak from Feb. 12 to March 6. Junior Jared Keel has the longest current hitting streak at four games.t
Senior Adam Godwin has already broken the Troy season and career records for stolen basess and he is about to claim the A-Sun season mark. His 47 stolen bases is a school record and is tied for the A-Sun season record. He is on pace to steal 101 over a 56-game regular season. He has stolen second and third base in succession 12 times this year. The Troy record for stolen bases in a season was 46 by Warren Arrington in 1986. With 75 career stolen bases, Godwin surpassed the old Troy career record of 74 set by Mike Austin in 1981-82.Noting The Trojans Pitchers
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The Troy starting pitchers have been greedy with their decisions this year. Through 26 games, the Troy starters have earned decisions in 21 outings. Two of the other decisions have gone to junior Tony Falls. Troy starting pitchers have had quality starts (6.0+ IP & 3 or fewer ER) in 14 of the last 20 games.t
Landon Brazell, has been a workhorse in his starts this year. He has thrown more than 100 pitches in six of his seven starts, has allowed as many as three earned runs just twice and he has a strikeout to walk ratio of 3.9 with an average of 11.00 strikeouts per nine innings. He has a 2.73 ERA in six starts and opponents are hitting .223 against him.t
Over the last 17 games the Troy pitching staff hasallowed more than three earned runs in a game just four times. During the stretch the team ERA has been 2.67 and the overall season ERA has dropped from 6.20 to 3.55.
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During the last 19 games the Trojans have posted a 14-5 record, but that mark could have been 17-2 if unearned runs were taken away. Four unearned runs in the second game against Lipscomb and two against UAB cost the Trojans wins in those games. The Trojans gave up six more unearned runs in a 9-5 loss at Gardner-Webb.t
The Troy pitching staff took a double hit on Wednesday, March 9. Junior Bert Elliott, from Gadsden, Ala., suffered a torn ACL and was lost for the year and sophomore Ryan Ramsey, from Panama City, Fla., decided to leave the team. The result was freshman Pete Van Horn losing his redshirt season.t
Troy native Pete Van Horn showed right away that he was ready when the opportunity came. In his collegiate debut, he came in with the tying run on base and one out in the ninth. He promptly picked the runner off base and struck out the hitter to earn his first save. In his second appearance, he again came in with the game on the line. This time, in an 8-6 game with two runners on, he got a double play to get out of the seventh inning. He then cruised through the final two innings for his second save.t
Van Horn showed on Wednesday that he can put in longer outings as well. In the win over UAH, Van Horn worked 5 1/3 innings in relief, allowing four hits and two earned runs while striking out four. He was the winning pitcher for the Trojans in that game.t
The Troy pitching staff, through 26 games, is averaging 9.1 strikeouts per nine innings while, at the same time, allowing 3.7 walks and 7.8 hits per nine innings.The Birmingham-Southern Game (March 29)
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Senior Adam Godwin put his name into the Troy record book by swiping three more bases, making him the all-time leader in stolen bases for both a season and career at Troy. He walked, stole second and third, and scored in the first inning and then walked, stole second, and scored the winning run in the eighth inning.t
Freshman Ryan Ellison struggled on the mound again, allowing five walks in just two innings of work. Junior Tony Falls turned in a strong performance in relief, going five innings with five strikeouts while allowing two earned runs on five hits.t
Senior Brent Adcock made his first relief appearance of the season, working the final two innings to secure the victory. Adcock did not allow a hit and struck out three.t
Troy had just four hits against the Panthers, but one was a solo homer by Nick Smith. It was his seventh of the year and the eighth for the Trojans leading off an inning this year.
