The Troy Trojans limp into the 2007 Sun Belt Conference Tournament this week after having lost three of their last four games, putting what was at one time a sure at large bid to the NCAA Tournament in serious jeopardy.
The only sure way for the Trojans to advance to NCAA Regional play for a second straight season is to win their second straight Sun Belt Tournament title. Troy will not have an easy path to the crown, however, after failing to earn the second seed in the tournament and finishing the regular season in a threeway tie for second place.
After all of the tie-breakers were sorted out, Troy enters the tournament as the fourth seed and will face Louisiana-Monroe on Wednesday at 4 p.m. in the first round of the championship. The Trojans are also in the same bracket with regular season Sun Belt champion Louisiana-Monroe as well as the host South Alabama Jaguars.
In the final regular season series of the year, the Trojans struggled to mount anything off ensively against South Alabama. Jags pitchers combined to hold the Trojans scoreless over 19 2/3 innings before Troy pushed across one ninth inning run on Saturday.
Those offensive woes for Troy go back over the last 10 Sun Belt games, as the Trojans have posted just four wins over that stretch while hitting just .295 as a team and averaging just 5.1 runs per game. During the home stretch of the conference season the Trojans have been held to two runs or less in a game five times, all losses.
While the Troy hitters have struggled, the Trojans' starting pitchers have also hit hard times. The trio of Clegg Snipes, Joe Hallahan and Ryan Ellison have combined to post a 6.98 ERA over the last 10 league games. The bright spot is that the Trojans' relievers have been sparkling. The seven other Troy pitchers have combined to post a 2.61 ERA down the stretch of the Sun Belt season.
The Trojans will try to get things corrected against a well-rested team from Louisiana-Monroe on Wednesday. The Warhawks played only one non-conference game over the weekend after finishing league play early. Troy did hit a robust .404 in the series against the Warhawks last month in taking two of three games at Riddle-Pace Field.
