Trojans Head North To Face Birmingham-Southern

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Troy Trojans (27-9, 15-3 A-Sun)

at Birmingham-Southern (21-15)

Birmingham, Ala. • Scrushy-Striplin Field (1,000)

Tuesday, April 19 • 6:00 pm

It seems as if the Troy baseball team just keeps finding ways to win. In a three-game weekend series against Georgia State, the Trojans won three different ways.

On Friday, the team spotted GSU a 7-0 lead and then rallied to take an 8-7 victory. On Saturday, Troy used strong pitching and timely hitting to take an 11-2 decision. Sunday's game was a pitching duel, with Troy scoring in the eighth to take a 3-2 victory and the series sweep.

The sweep was the third in a row in Atlantic Sun play for the Trojans and keeps Troy in first place in the league race, one game in front of UCF. The sweep was also fifth overall this season, and fourth in A-Sun play, the most since the program joined the league.

Tonight the Trojans step out of league play to face a very dangerous, but slumping, Birmingham-Southern squad. The Panthers have been swept in consecutive weekend series, first by Miami (Ohio) and, most recently, by nationally-ranked Coastal Carolina. In between, however, BSC took a 12-0 decision from UAB.

It will be the second meeting of the season between the two teams. Three weeks ago Troy took a 4-3 victory at Riddle-Pace Field. In that game Adam Godwin became the A-Sun's single season stolen base leader with his 48th of the season.

Tonight's pitching matchup will pit Troy freshman right-hander Ryan Ellison (1-1, 3.80) against BSC junior right-hander Michael Repole (2-0, 3.45). Both pitched in the first meeting of the year. Ellison walked five in two innings of work as the Troy starter. Repole pitched to two batters in the eighth inning and surrendered the game-winning sacrifice fly.

Both Chase Amis and Nick Smith enter play tonight with career-best 11 game hitting streaks.

The All-Time Series

The Panthers hold a commanding lead in the all-time series on the diamond. BSC has a 19-9 overall lead in the series, including an 8-4 lead in games played in Birmingham. Prior to renewing the series in 2003, the schools had gone 13 seasons (1991) since playing. Troy won the first meeting this year 4-3.

The Coaches

Troy - Bobby Pierce (Alabama, ?˜82) is in his third season at Troy and has an 89-58 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 624 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 365-166 and he is in his 10th season.

Birmingham-Southern - Brian Shoop (Malone, 1980) is in his 16th season as the Panthers head coach. He has a career record of 644-279-1 that includes an NAIA National Championship in 2001.

On the Air

The Troy Network, with Barry McKnight providing play-by-play, will carry the Birmingham-Southern game on WTBF-FM. The game will also be available on the internet at www.TroyTrojans.com.

Noting The Trojans Offense

t After taking a huge leap forward during the Mercer series, Troy fell back slightly against Georgia State last weekend in terms of hitting with runners in scoring position. The Trojans were just 7-for-35 (.200) in the series against GSU with runners in scoring position. That performance dropped the teams' over average in that situation back to .308.

t Senior Chase Amis has continued to swing the bat well for Troy. During his current 11-game hitting streak he has raised his season batting average 49 points. Amis does his best work with runners on base, hitting .323 this year.

t Junior Nick Smith also enters play tonight riding a career-best 11-game hitting streak. During his streak he has gone 21-46 at the plate for a .456 batting average, and has raised his season average 58 points.

t In addition to hitting with runners in scoring position, the Trojans have been doing a number on opposing pitchers when there are two out in an inning. The team is hitting .286 this season with two out and has 109 two-out RBI.

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 36 games this year, Gutierrez has surpassed his 2004 production while Nick Smith had nine and Blake Green has eight home runs each. As a team, the Trojans have 55 homers, 17 more than all of last season, and stand fifth in the nation in hitting the long ball.

t Senior Adam Godwin has broken the Troy season and career records for stolen bases, as well as the A-Sun season mark. His 62 stolen bases puts him on pace to steal 96 over a 56-game regular season. He has stolen second and third base in succession 17 times this year and has stolen home once. The old Troy record for stolen bases in a season was 46 by Warren Arrington in 1986. With 83 career stolen bases, Godwin surpassed the old Troy career record of 74 set by Mike Austin in 1981-82.

t Sophomore first baseman Clint Robinson's woes with the bases loaded continued against USA. A normally very productive hitter, Robinson is still looking for his first collegiate hit with the bases loaded. When he struck out with the bases loaded at South Alabama it ran his dry spell to 0-for-6 this season and 0-for-12 in his career.

t The rest of the Troy team has picked up the slack for Robinson when the bases have been loaded. The other Trojans are 17-of-33 (.515) with the sacks have been packed. Nick Smith and Dru Rymer own the Trojans' two grand slam home runs this year.

t The best way for any team to have a big inning is to get the leadoff hitter on base. The Trojans have done that this year, with leadoff hitters reaching base at a .384 clip. Among the Troy regulars, Blake Green (.474) and Henry Gutierrez (.489) have reached base as leadoff hitters at the highest rate. Trojans leadoff hitter Adam Godwin has also done well, reaching at a .400 clip.

Noting The Trojans Pitchers

t The Troy starting pitchers have been greedy with their decisions this year. Through 36 games, the Troy starters have earned decisions in 27 outings. Five 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 just four of their last 12 starts after producing a stretch of 14 quality starts in 18 outings.

t Landon Brazell, has been a workhorse in his starts this year. He has thrown more than 100 pitches in nine of his 10 starts, has allowed as many as three earned runs just four times and he has a strikeout to walk ratio of 3.8 with an average of 10.78 strikeouts per nine innings. He has a 3.01 ERA in nine starts and opponents are hitting .239 against him. Brazell is averaging 123.6 pitches per starting assignment.

t The Troy pitching staff had started to slow down over an eight-game stretch, but picked up the pace again over the last two weekends.Troy had allowed 28 earned runs over four games, including a season-high 14 to South Alabama. The Trojans' ERA over that stretch was 7.20. In six games against Mercer and Georgia State the Trojans allowed just 12 earned runs for an ERA of 2.07 for the two series.

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 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. The freshman got his second victory, and first A-Sun win, with 5 1/3 innings against Campbell.

t The Troy pitching staff, through 36 games, is averaging 9.14 strikeouts per nine innings while, at the same time, allowing 3.60 walks and 8.13 hits per nine innings.

The Georgia State Series (April 15-17)

t After spotting the visiting Panthers a 7-0 lead in the first inning of the opening game of the series, the Trojans outscored Georgia State 22-4 over the remainder of the series to record their fourth A-Sun series sweep of the season.

t Despite driving in just one run over the weekend, senior Henry Gutierrez had an outstanding weekend, both at the plate, and behind it. Gutierrez batted .636 for the series with seven runs scored. In Sunday's 3-2 victory he hit a solo homer in the sixth to give Troy the lead and then walked and scored the winning run in the eighth inning. Behind the plate in two games he was able to throw out all three would-be base-stealers.

t Adam Godwin continued to struggle at the plate. The senior had just two hits in the series and was held without a stolen base in consecutive games for just the third time this season. He did steal three bases in the first game of the series. He has not had a streak of three games without a steal this year.

t Senior Landon Brazell had a nightmare first inning on Friday. After striking out the first two GSU hitters he faced, he allowed a two-strike infield single. That was followed by a two-strike RBI double and opened the door for a seven-run inning. Once he got out of the inning, the Dothan native did not allow another run in the game and GSU managed just four more hits.

t Sophomore first baseman Clint Robinson had to go to a larger shoe than normal for Sunday's game. Robinson suffered a broken little toe when a GSU runner stepped on his foot Saturday night. After getting fitted with the larger shoe, Robinson played and had a hit on Sunday.

Troy University Athletics

Trojans Head North To Face Birmingham-Southern

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