Troy Baseball Opens 2026 Season at Mercer

Friday, February 13

Macon, Ga.

5 p.m.

Troy University

Mercer

2/12/2026 12:00:00 PM | Baseball

Live Stats ESPN+ (Game 1)ESPN+ (Game 2)ESPN+ (Game 3)Listen

By: Troy Athletics Communications

TROY, Ala. - Troy Baseball officially turns the page to 2026 this weekend, opening the season with a three-game road series at Mercer in Macon, Ga., Friday through Sunday.

Troy's trip to the Peach State will be its first time opening the season away from Riddle-Pace Field since beginning the 2009 campaign at the Caravelle Resort Invitational in Myrtle Beach, S.C. It'll also be the first time the Trojans will have opened the season with a true-road series since beginning the 2005 season at McNeese State.

Now in his fifth season, head coach Skylar Meade has Troy in a place it's never been before. The Trojans are coming off a 39-21 2025 campaign in which they were ranked for 14 consecutive weeks, including a program-best No. 14 national ranking by Baseball America in weeks 12 and 13. Meade's 148 wins across his first four seasons leading the cardinal & white are the most in the first four seasons of any coach in program history.

Mercer enters the 2026 season picked second in the SoCon preseason poll after going 35-25 last spring while finishing No. 71 in the NCAA RPI. Game One starter Garrett Lambert and reliever Collin Ewaldsen were Preseason All-SoCon First Team selections while starter Jess Ackerman, reliever Braydon Kersey, shortstop Titan Kamaka and third baseman Brant Baughcum landed on the Second Team.

Series Information
The Matchup: Troy (0-0) at Mercer (0-0)
Game Times: Friday - 5 p.m. CT | Saturday - 1 p.m. CT | Sunday - 12 p.m. CT
Location: Macon, Ga. - OrthoGeorgia Park
TV: ESPN+
Radio: Troy Sports Radio Network
Live Stats: TroyTrojans.com/LiveStats

On the Mound
Game 1
Troy: Sr. RHP Tommy Egan
Mercer: R-Fr. RHP Garrett Lambert

Game 2
Troy: So. RHP Noah Thigpen
Mercer: Jr. RHP Miguel Hugas

Game 3
Troy: Sr. LHP Benjamin Stubbs
Mercer: TBA

One Last Ride
Troy seniors Blake Cavill and Steven Meier were two of Troy's most productive hitters in 2025, and the duo returns for one last ride in 2026 as the two former junior college players were each granted a fifth year of eligibility.

Cavill enters 2026 as the unanimous Preseason Sun Belt Player of the Year (Coaches, D1Baseball, Perfect Game) after setting the conference on fire last season. The Australian first baseman hit .320 with a conference-best .516 on-base percentage, reaching base in all 58 games played for the Trojans. Cavill begins the season on a 65-game base streak stretching back to his final seven games with Western Kentucky in 2024, the longest active streak in college baseball.

Meier, a Preseason All-Sun Belt selection by Perfect Game, roamed centerfield for the Trojans while posting a .300 batting average with 16 doubles and eight homers. Like Cavill, Meier was an on-base machine with a .447 OBP while setting the Troy record with 29 hit-by-pitches. Meier's 24 stolen bases a season ago are also the most among players returning to the Sun Belt Conference in 2026.

Portal Power
The Trojans will trot out a plethora of new faces this season, as Meade and company welcomed in the nation's 19th-ranked transfer portal class, according to 64Analytics. In total, Troy added 13 players through the transfer portal and six from junior colleges.

Headlining the portal haul is Stony Brook's Nico Azpilcueta, an NCBWA Preseason First Team All-American who crushed 20 home runs for the Seawolves last season, and Central Michigan's Aaron Piasecki, a Preseason All-Sun Belt pick at shortstop by Perfect Game. From the junior colleges ranks, Jabe Boroff provides some right-handed pop to the Troy lineup after launching 20 home runs down the road at Enterprise State last season.

While Troy only returns 21% of its innings pitched from a season ago, the Trojans' nine transfer portal pitchers have combined for 586.1 innings pitched in their careers. UIC's Tommy Egan and Flagler's Benjamin Stubbs will make their Trojan debuts in the opening weekend rotation, while Kansas State's Blake Dean, USC Upstate's Cooper Ellingworth and Kentucky's Hayden Smith, among many others, all look to be key factors in the Troy bullpen.

Sophomore Studs
The Trojans return a strong nucleus of sophomores headlined by catcher Jimmy Janicki, outfielder Houston Markham and right-hander Noah Thigpen.

Janicki kicks behind the plate after spending last season on the hot corner. The Preseason All-Sun Belt selection tied the Troy freshman record with 12 doubles in 2025. Markham was as consistent as any hitter in the Troy lineup last season, picking up a team-best 13-game hit streak with a .273 average, while Thigpen's 3.86 ERA was the fourth-best by a freshman with at least 40 innings pitched in Troy history.

Series History

Troy holds a 13-12 all-time record against Mercer. All 25 meetings took place between 1998 and 2005, when both schools were members of the Atlantic Sun Conference.
In the two teams' most recent meeting in 2005, the Trojans went into Macon and swept a three-game series. Troy went on to win the Atlantic Sun regular season championship with a 23-7 conference record.