vs. South Alabama (18-10, 2-1 SBC)
Troy, Ala. • Riddle-Pace Field (2,000)
The waiting is finally over for the Troy Trojans.
After seven weeks of baseball in the 2006 season, the Trojans can finally look forward to the start of the Sun Belt Conference season. And what an opening series it promises to be.
The Jaguars of South Alabama will be the first official Sun Belt opponents for Troy, and all USA has done recently in the Sun Belt is win or share the league's regular season or conference title for six consecutive seasons. During Coach Steve Kittrell's 21 seasons at USA, he has taken 17 teams to the NCAA Tournament.
To say the Jaguars are the standard bearers for the Sun Belt Conference would be no exaggeration.
USA also comes into the weekend series with a pair of advantages over the Trojans. One is that the Jaguars defeated Troy earlier this season in a non-conference game at the Wiregrass Baseball Classic in Dothan. Second is the fact that USA already has one weekend of league play under its belt, having taken two of three games from Louisiana-Lafayette last weekend.
The Trojans, however, enter the series on a roll. Since the Wiregrass Classic, Troy has won 12 of its 15 games and has produced a .357 team batting average. Junior shortstop Tom King, who enters the weekend series with a 20-game hitting streak, has been the catalyst of a Troy offense that is averaging 10 runs per game in the recent 15-game run.
King is hitting .508 over the last 15 games with 10 doubles, four home runs and 21 RBI, but he isn't the only hot hitter for the Trojans during the recent run.
Fellow Panama City native Mike Felix is hitting .452 over the last 15 games and has also posted a 4-1 record on the mound with a 2.76 ERA and 40 strikeouts in 32.2 innings of work.
Besides the strong showing by Felix on the mound during the streak, junior right-hander Clegg Snipes, who will start the opening game of the series against USA, is 2-0 with a 1.42 ERA in three starts during the 15-game run.
Following Snipes in the rotation for the Trojans this weekend will be sophomore left-hander Steven Morelock (2-0, 5.00) and either Felix (4-2, 3.14) or junior left-hander Joe Hallahan (1-2, 5.08), depending on whether Felix pitches in relief in either of the first two games.
