Troy pitcher shines in Sunday role

Travis Burge’s journey to Troy started with a random message on facebook.com to a friend.

The Port St. Joe, Fla., native had spent the first two years of his college career at Florida State, appearing as a key left-handed specialist out of the bullpen. It was Burge’s dream school, but he wanted more.

“I sent (current Troy catcher) Steven Felix a message on (social networking site) facebook and asked if they needed a left-handed pitcher,” Burge said. “It blew
up from there.”

Burge, now a senior, has become one of Troy’s more consistent pitchers over the past two years. He’ll throw in Sunday’s game of an important home Sun Belt
series against Middle Tennessee.

It begins today at 6 p.m. at Riddle-Pace Field.

He had success at Florida State, appearing 27 times each year against some of the nation’s best. He was 1-1 with a 3.97 ERA as a freshman in 2006 and 1-0
with a 4.34 ERA as a sophomore.

But when it became apparent he wasn’t going to get a chance as a weekend starter, he looked at Troy — a small town similar to Port St. Joe. Burge said if he
hadn’t chosen FSU, he would have signed with Troy out of high school.

“Honestly, I wanted to start,” Burge said. “I’ve always been a starter. I love FSU to death. It was always my dream to go there. But I’m from a small town and
Troy’s suited better for me than Tallahassee was.”

He established himself as one of Troy’s best early on last year, firing seven shutout innings against ACC foe Wake Forest and throwing a complete game at
Western Kentucky. Not long after that, he felt forearm tightness and had to start coming out of the bullpen, but went 5-3 with a 6.03 ERA.

At 4-1 with a 4.88 ERA and 3-0 in the month of April, Burge has established himself as a go-to guy on the weekends. He’s also now fully recovered from minor
offseason elbow surgery and gets the ball on what Troy coaches deem “Championship Sundays.”

Usually, teams have pitching woes in the third game of a conference series. Not Troy.

“You want a guy who gives you a chance each time out,” Troy head coach Bobby Pierce said. “You want a guy who has the gumption to attack teams,
because any of three scenarios can happen. You’re going for a sweep, trying to win the rubber game of a series, or trying to avoid being swept.”

Burge recently helped Troy avoid a sweep by UL-Lafayette and helped the Trojans sweep Arkansas State and Florida Atlantic. The 6-foot, 170-pounder doesn’t
light up the radar gun, but he relies on working quick and pitching to contact, keeping his defense on its toes.

“He’s solid mid-80s and can punch it up there (higher) a time or two,” Pierce said. “He commands the ball, makes pitches and gets a lot of outs with his two-
seam fastball.

“He wants the ball and competes hard with every pitch. That’s what you want to see out of a guy. He knows what he has to get done and he does it.”