Baseball update

By Drew Champlin

Published: March 30, 2009

Troy took 2-of-3 this weekend at New Orleans, losing the first one and winning the second. The bats really were alive all series, and the pitching was hit or miss. Travis Burge, who couldn’t get out of the first inning in Sunday’s 19-8 Troy win, will start Tuesday’s 6 p.m. against Southern Miss. Jeff Green will start the Wednesday 4 p.m. game, which I hope I’ll be able to cover. More rains are scheduled for the area this week, and some big ones. Keep the town of Geneva in your thoughts and prayers, because it’s an area that can’t afford to have much more water.

Troy is now 15-10, 4-5 in league play with a very winnable series at Arkansas State this weekend. Checking the stats, Brett Henry leads the team with a .378 average, and Ryan Ditthardt is the top run-producer with 7 homers and 34 RBIs with a .376 average. The pitching ERAs could come down, but a 4.96 team ERA in the metal bat era is decent.

Southern Miss brings a 16-9 record to Troy this week and will be one of the better teams Troy hosts this year. Golden Eagles scored 51 in three games at UCF last weekend. Get caught up with USM baseball HERE.

Looking at the Sun Belt standings, Middle Tennessee and Western Kentucky are dominating. MTSU is 11-1 in league play and WKU, which had its bye from league play last week, is 8-1. Troy is sixth at 4-5.

Also, for the Sun Belt-leading softball Trojans, Ashlyn Williams was named SBC Pitcher of the Week for her efforts in Troy’s sweep of Western Kentucky.