Troy Baseball Season Preview - Pitchers - Troy University Athletics

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TROY, Alabama – The Troy baseball team opens its 2017 season this weekend with a four-game series against the defending Big East champion Xavier Musketeers at Riddle-Pace Field; the teams play a single game on Friday (6 p.m.), a doubleheader on Saturday (1 p.m.) and a single game on Sunday (12 p.m.).

Head coach Mark Smartt sat down with TroyTrojans.com to breakdown his team ahead of his second season at the helm of the program … today we look at Troy's pitchers.

Mark Smartt on Troy's Starting Pitchers:
"It all starts around Corey Childress. We moved him to the back of the bullpen last year and now we've brought him back into the Friday night role this season. I feel very confident in Corey's ability to make that adjustment. He's got experience in that role as he did it as a freshman. I'm encouraged that he's done that before and we can trust him in that important Friday night slot.

"We have a very solid group with a nice mix of left and right handers, and I think that balance is important. We also have a lot of different type of guys -- some have a lot of velocity and some guys can change speeds, so all in all I think it is a very deep group of pitchers."

Starting Pitcher Notes:
• Corey Childress became the first true freshman in Troy's recorded history to start a season opener on the mound when he did so in 2015 – he tossed seven scoreless innings with five strikeouts and two hits allowed. Childress recorded 10 saves in 2016 – the second most in school history.

• Houston Mabray allowed just one earned run over his final 14 innings of work (Mississippi State, Georgia State, South Alabama) … he allowed three earned runs or fewer in seven of nine starts on the season.

• Daren Osby struck out 100 batters and held opposing hitters to a .203 batting average in 91.2 innings last season at Walters State CC.

• Evan Hebert started 10 games last season for the Trojans, which included starts against Auburn, Alabama, UL Lafayette, Southeastern Louisiana and Michigan State.

Mark Smartt on Troy's Bullpen:
"The bullpen is the least experienced part of our team, but we do have an anchor with great experience in Marc Skinner, who will start out the season at the end of the bullpen. He is a four-year guy in our bullpen and a guy that we trust in those key moments because he has been there.

"Leading into that anchor we've got Trey Johns, who has some experience from last year, but everybody else in that area doesn't have any Division I experience. They are very talented – it's as talented a group of pitchers that we've had here in my 15 years as a body of pitchers. They just have to get out there and perform, and I'm excited to see this group early in the year go perform because they are very capable.

"I think if this group can get some experience and get comfortable, they can become a real strength of our team throughout the course of the year, but it's difficult for me right now to say it's a strength because of their inexperience."

Bullpen Notes:
• Marc Skinner ranks third all-time in Troy history with 82 career appearances and fifth all-time in school history with eight career saves.

• Cory Gill carried a 2.72 ERA into his final appearance of the season and threw the second most innings on the team among Troy's non-weekend starters.

• Trey Johns did not all an earned run over his first 10 appearances and 17 innings of work last season.

Troy University Athletics

Troy Baseball Season Preview - Pitchers

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Players Mentioned

Corey Childress

Cory Gill

Evan Hebert

Trey Johns

Houston Mabray

Daren Osby

Marc Skinner

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