Trojans Look To Continue Winning Ways vs. FIU

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Coming off a mid-week victory over Auburn, the No. 20 Troy Trojans will return to action this weekend with a three-game series against Sun Belt Conference foe FIU. The teams last met for the Sun Belt Conference Tournament title last May.

Friday's game at Riddle-Pace Field is scheduled for a 6 p.m. start. Saturday's game will be the Sun Belt Network Game of the Week (Cox Sports and CSS) and will start at 7 p.m. The series finale on Sunday is set for a 1 p.m. start.

All three games will be available on the Troy Sports Network with Barry McKnight and Jerry Miller providing the call of the action. The pregame show for all three games will start 15 minutes prior to first pitch. The games can be heard locally on WTBF-FM 94.7 and worldwide through the internet at www.TroyTrojans.com.

Video web streaming of the games will also be available via Trojan All Access through TroyTrojans.com.

For Saturday's televised game, Lynn Rollins will handle play-by-play duties with Ronnie Rantz serving as the color analyst. It will be the second TV game of the week for the Trojans, and head coach Bobby Pierce said he likes the added exposure for his team.”

“Obviously the exposure is good for everything,” Pierce said. “It is good for the program, good for recruiting, good for the University and good for the athletics department. We have been on TV a few times before. I get excited about it and I think our kids and fans do as well. As a coach, you just hope that your team plays well because there are a lot more eyes on you.”

Troy (23-5, 8-1 SBC) enters the series with the program's best start since joining Division I, and the Trojans are on four-game win streak that included a 14-6 rout of No. 30 Auburn on Tuesday where every starter recorded at least one hit and scored one run. Troy's defense is ranked No. 4 in the country at .982.

“Offense is always up and down, for every team and for every player who has ever played the game,” Pierce said. “We just have to continue to work on the things we have been working on and put a little more focus on the small things that we haven't executed very well.”

The Trojans are at the top of the league standings entering the weekend, and FIU (19-13, 4-5 SBC) will start the series in a four-way tie for fifth place with South Alabama, UALR and ULM.

FIU dropped their last game out to Bethune-Cookman, 5-4, despite a ninth-inning comeback on Wednesday. However, the Panthers bring the Sun Belt Player and Pitcher of the Week to Troy this weekend in seniors Jose Behar and Danny DeSimone, respectively.

Starting catcher Behar hit two home runs against ULM last weekend and is riding a career-high 12-game hitting streak. DeSimone tossed a complete game shutout against ULM on Sunday to give FIU a crucial conference road series victory, limiting the Warhawk bats to just seven hits while striking out seven batters, which ties a season high. At one point in the game, DeSimone retired 14-of-15 batters down the stretch.

The three-game conference slate will feature some of the best pitching in the league.

Troy leads the Sun Belt (2.83 ERA) and the undefeated pitching duo of junior right-hander Tyler Ray (6-0, 1.45) and senior right-hander Drew Hull (4-0, 1.95) have the top two ERAs in the SBC. Freshman left-hander Jimmy Hodgskin (2-1, 3.00) will start for the Trojans on Sunday.

Hull's scheduled start in the televised game on Saturday will be the 75th appearance of his Troy career, breaking the school record he currently shares with Mal Winters (2001-04).

“We have certainly played well, pitched well and defended well, and that is something that you can start to rely on when you are consistently doing those things well,” Pierce said. “You just have to play the best that you can and let the chips fall where they fall.”

FIU ranks third in the Sun Belt in team ERA (3.51) and will send junior left-hander Phil Haig (4-1, 4.19) to the hill on Friday, junior left-hander R.J. Fondon (1-4, 4.12) will pitch on Saturday and senior right-hander Daniel DeSimone (3-2, 3.32) will work on Sunday..

As a team, the Panthers are batting .295 while the Trojans are batting .294. FIU's Pablo Bermudez and Troy's Adam Bryant are tied for a conference-best 32 runs scored this season. Bermudez ranks second in the league in batting with a .417 average, and ranks 10th in the nation in on-base percentage (.535). Bryant enters the series riding a career-best 16-game hitting streak.

FIU leads the overall series 11-9 with the last meeting coming in the 2010 SBC Tournament championship game. Troy is 6-3 in the series at Riddle-Pace Field.

Despite the fact that FIU stopped Troy in the 2010 SBC title game, Pierce said he thinks what the Panthers have done on the field this year is more of a concern to his club.

“When FIU comes in this weekend, they are number 39 in the RPI and are a very good team,” Pierce said. “They beat us in the conference tournament final last year but we are at home and we generally play pretty good at home. We don't have very many guys back from last year, so I don't think that will play into this series.”

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Trojans Look To Continue Winning Ways vs. FIU

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