A couple of baseball notes

April 03, 2008

By Drew Champlin

Troy will be without three pitchers this weekend when it hosts Arkansas State for a three-game set.

Freshman LHP AJ Howard broke a bone in his right hand and its out until at least next weekend.

Senior RHP JJ Whetsel is out with arm problems from Tommy John surgery recovery. That should be minor and he should be back soon.

Junior RHP Andrew Dickinson is out with bone chips in his shoulder. He could have surgery, ending his season and qualifying him for a medical redshirt, or try to pitch through the pain if he can deal with it.

Thursday link

April 02, 2008

By Drew Champlin

I wrote on the progression of the Troy quarterbacks plus a couple of other notes.

As of right now, scrimmage Saturday is at 2 p.m. That could change and I hope it’s moved earlier.

Wednesday football thoughts

By Drew Champlin

Spoke with offensive coordinator Neal Brown on the quarterbacking situation and some other offensive stuff.

Basically, the three contenders are still neck and neck. The stats that were given from the scrimmage were a little off, but that’s why they’re considered “unofficial.“ Tanner Jones actually had over 200 yards passing and completed a higher percentage of his passes, and Jamie Hampton didn’t throw for as many yards. All three threw for more 200 yards, including the other QB, Levi Brown.

Don’t worry about the defense. In the now three springs I’ve covered this offense, it has been lights out during the spring and the defense has been better in the fall scrimmages. Usually the main guys don’t play as much during the spring, but they’re running more plays to get the QBs as many reps as possible.

They’ll scrimmage again Saturday and it looks like the three guys will get heavy looks again. Brown said he’d review a lot of spring tape and narrow it down to two after spring practice and go with those two heading into fall camp.

“Saturday didn’t clear anything up, but I feel better about all three,“ Brown said. “I feel like we can win with any of the three playing quarterback. Like I was telling the other coaches, the best thing we did was not panic and sign a junior college quarterback.“

Some other offensive notes: Wide receiver Jerrel Jernigan (ankle) and left guard Tyler Clark (shoulder) are likely out for the spring. Nothing serious, but spring’s not the time to risk it for starters. Wide receiver Gerald Tate (hamstring) is back practicing, but wide receiver Justin Bray (hamstring) is still out.

Jonathan Chandler has been moved from QB to inside receiver. He’s learning both X and H receiver positions and if he can fine tune his form, he can help out this year.

Wide receiver Patrick Cherry has answered the bell and stepped up as other WRs have been injured, Brown said.

Look for more in tomorrow’s Dothan Eagle.
—————————————————————————————————————-
Baseball lost 7-4 last night to Southern Miss. Tough to win when you keep leaving guys on base and let the other team’s No. 8 hole hitter have the game of his life, but that’s what happened to Troy last night. They play again at 4 p.m. today in Hattiesburg.

Tuesday link

April 01, 2008

By Drew Champlin

Wanted this story to focus on Terence Moore inheriting the nickel spot, but it pretty much gives praise to Troy’s three senior safeties - Moore, Tavares Williams and Sherrod Martin. That position is easily the best and most experienced one on this team with those three.

Troy’s got a couple of big non-conference games at Southern Miss. Still not sure how high this Troy team is going to finish in the Sun Belt as there are several tough road series against teams that are proving to be better offensive clubs than Troy, but we’ll see. Found out Troy’s lefty in the pen will be redshirt freshman Clay Thomley, the sidearmer from Wicksbug who has yet to see action in his Troy career. His dad told me tonight when I covered Wicksburg’s 13-10 win over Houston Academy that Clay was added to the travel roster. Not sure if he’ll get any game action or not but with AJ Howard out with a broken non-throwing hand, a lefty was needed. To the best of my knowledge, he hasn’t dressed for a game yet so I know it’s exciting for the Thomley family. Ironically, Clay’s younger brother Colby was the winning pitcher over rival HA Monday.