Troy 5, Penn State 2

February 29, 2008

Drew Champlin

It hasn’t been pretty, but Troy is 6-0. The Trojans scored three unearned runs in the eighth inning to get the win over Penn State tonight in the ScreenTech Wiregrass Classic.

With two outs, Steven Felix hit a grounder through the first baseman’s legs. A run scored to make it 3-2. On a wild pitch, pinch-runner Daniel Peterson scored and Felix rounded second and went to third, drawing a throw that went into left field. Felix then scored.

Troy had six hits by six different players.

“That’s been our formula so far — pitch well, defend well and get a few timely hits. That’s exactly what we got tonight and so far early in the year, that’s what has worked for us,” Troy head coach Bobby Pierce said.

Starting pitcher Ryan Ellison struck out 10. He had a rough second inning and had he pitched well there, could have thrown a shutout.

“I don’t know why he struggled (in the 2nd inning),” Pierce said. “He had a low-ball umpire. He was nailing it the first inning and in the second, he started getting up under it a little bit and not taking advantage of a great pitcher’s strike zone but then he settled in.”

It was 2-1 in the seventh before PSU got a solo homer off reliever A.J. Howard. Pierce said Howard did what he was supposed to do - he threw an inside cutter but the guy just hit it well. Neal Jordan (1-0) got a key double-play ball in the eighth and Josh Storm struck out the side in the ninth.

Troy plays Wake Forest today in a doubleheader beginning at 2 p.m. Wake Forest slammed Kennesaw State 16-0 in the early game Friday and is expected to contend in the ACC.

“They certainly did center up a lot of balls against Kennesaw State,” Pierce said. “They looked like a solid ball club. We’re certainly going to have to score some runs to stay with them.”

Baseball this weekend

Drew Champlin

The final ScreenTech Wiregrass Classic will take place this weekend. Here’s the schedule of games at Northcutt Field in Dothan.

Friday
2 p.m. - Kennesaw State vs. Wake Forest
6 p.m. - Troy vs. Penn State

Saturday
10 a.m. - Kennesaw State vs. Penn State
2 p.m. - Troy vs. Wake Forest in a DOUBLEHEADER

Sunday
10 a.m. - Wake Forest vs. Penn State
2 p.m. - Troy vs. Kennesaw State

For your reading pleasure, I wrote a feature on Troy catcher Beau Brooks, who grew up in Huntsville while Troy head coach Bobby Pierce was building the UA-Huntsville program from scratch.

Check back later in the weekend for game recaps and observations.

Penn State is 1-2, coming off a series loss at, oh, High Point.

Wake Forest is 1-3, having lost 2 of 3 at Pepperdine before getting bombed by, oh, Appalachian State during the midweek. The Demon Deacons made a surprising run to the ACC tournament finals and made it to an NCAA Regional. Wake Forest is projected to be one of the upper-echelon ACC teams this year but hasn’t played like it.

Kennesaw State is 4-3 and has played four games in the last three days - one a loss to Troy and the Owls took 2 of 3 over Atlantic Sun foe Stetson. Yep, thanks to the NCAA’s idiotic schedule changes this year, some conferences are playing doubleheaders Wednesday and single games Thursday. Kennesaw State’s a pretty decent squad, but who knows what we’ll see from them this weekend.

Troy is 5-0, with pitching leading the way so far. The Trojans have a team ERA of 0.80 but four of the games have come against Rhode Island. Expect the same pitching order as last weekend in the four games - Senior RHP Ryan Ellison, sophomore RHP Tim Wheeler, junior LHP Travis Burge and junior RHP Andrew Dickinson.

Troy seniors

February 27, 2008

Drew Champlin

No matter how you look at the results on the court, all four of the Troy seniors on the men’s team - Jarvis Acker, Justin Jonus, O’Darien Bassett and Jerome Odem - will graduate this May.

Just thought I’d share.

Now, the coaches need to find a couple of 6-foot-7, 250-pound guys who were paddled by their parents every time they said the word “3-pointer” as a kid and convince them to come to Troy.

O’Darien Bassett

Drew Champlin

Scored 33 of his 42 points in the second half, but it wasn’t enough. Troy fell 99-93.

A shame Troy didn’t have a big man to play with him this year. That was the best individual performance I’ve ever seen in a college game.

At the Troy-FAU game

Drew Champlin

And apparently Sun Belt officials L. Cassell, T. Oglesby and B. Dugas thought everyone came here to see them.

12 minutes played, 17 total fouls whistled.

At least they’re calling it both ways. FAU called for 9 fouls, Troy 8. But no one came to see them blow their whistles whenever someone breathes on someone else.

With 7:47 left, it’s FAU 22-20.

HALFTIME - FAU’s Sanchez Hughley drilled a shot just past halfcourt at the buzzer. It’s always cool to see that, no matter who’s playing where.

We’ve seen a ridiculous 23 fouls called (12 for Troy, 11 for FAU, so they’re being consistent). I think these guys were calling the high school game I was at a couple of weeks ago in Geneva. I’m never going to say on here if an official made a right or wrong call, but when 75% of the fouls whistled are touch fouls, then they deserve to be commented on.

Might as well be good that I’m putting some in-game stuff up because, if records hold serve, this is likely the last Troy basketball game I’ll see this year. Trojans will have to go on the road somewhere next week. If it ended before today, Troy would be at ULL, a team that beat Troy by 21 in Troy.

Talking to assistant David Felix before the game, who said, “How (Troy) plays is based on how O.D. (Bassett) plays.”

Well, O.D. has 9 points on 4-of-11 shooting and Troy is down 11. Go figure.

With 3:40 left and this might be my last in-game blog this year, Troy is down 79-63. A FAU dude just dunked on Jarvis Acker and was fouled. This reminds me a lot of that ULL game.

Ta-ta for now.