Catching up
May 19, 2008
Now I’m back, so thanks to the 55 of you who visited Saturday. Sorry there was nothing to see.
Time to catch up on a few things, and the big topic of the week is baseball. Troy hits the road to Lafayette, where the Trojans will play 6-seed and host ULL Wednesday night in the first round of the Sun Belt Tournament. Troy is the third seed. New Orleans, which was swept by ULL last weekend, is the No. 2 seed and South Alabama is the No. 7 seed. It’s a pretty tough draw for the Trojans, which will likely face the two only true aces in the tournament - ULL’s Hunter Moody and UNO’s Bryan Cryer. Both are seniors, Moody is a LHP and Cryer a RHP. They’ll only see Cryer if they play the Privateers in Round 2. UNO is likely in the NCAA Regionals already and ULL has to win the thing - which is why the Cajuns will probably throw Moody in its first game.
Troy is 0-4 in games that Moody has started for ULL in the last three games. The Trojans will throw JR RHP Jeff Green (2-5, 8.14 ERA). Green didn’t pitch Saturday against Troy after it had wrapped up the No. 3 seed, and he’s the Trojans’ best bet to come back on short rest if Troy makes it to Saturday. Don’t look at the ERA and dismiss him - Green’s gotten a lot better as the year as progressed and he’s 100 percent back from Tommy John surgery. He throws 89-93 consistently and he’s been hit when the fastball has been flat. He’s been working a 2-seam fastball a lot more and his breaking pitch has gotten a lot better over the past few weeks. One of Green’s 2 wins was at ULL on April 26, when in an 11-4 win, Green gave up 4 runs in 6 innings with 7 strikeouts. The best bet is Ryan Ellison in Game 2, though Tim Wheeler is a possibility. Ellison and Green have been throwing the best among the Troy starters lately.
The all-conference teams will come out tomorrow. It’s a sure bet that outfielder Bryan Miller (.404, 12 HR, 63 RBI, nation-leading 31 doubles) will be a first-teamer, but he won’t be the SBC Player of the Year. It’s another case where a Trojan player puts up dominant numbers (remember Tom King in 2006?) but didn’t get POY. What’s been amazing about Miller is that he’s raised his batting average in conference play and could end up having the most prolific offensive season in Troy history if he keeps this pace up and Troy can manage to win the tournament and play another week.
Miller should be the fifth straight Trojan to lead the country in something (Nate Moore in ERA in 2004, Adam Godwin in stolen bases in 2005, Tom King in hits and doubles in 2006, Josh Dew in strikeouts per nine innings in 2007).
Bryan Miller was also named Sun Belt Player of the Week for the third straight week.
Voting for this, with each school getting 1 vote, was done prior to the last weekend’s series, when Miller pretty much dominated South Alabama. He’s hitting around .565 in his last 15 games.
Oh, here’s something else interesting that I hope it continues next year when the SBC Tournament is held in 2009 at Troy. They’re having a HOME RUN DERBY with 1 player from each team. Troy’s representative is Charley Williams and his four home runs on the year, but he’s got a natural lift to his swing and wouldn’t have to change anything to his approach. Also, you don’t want one of your best players to run the risk of tweaking something. Most of the other teams have top players competing.
But the most fun part? The MEDIA HOME RUN DERBY. Makes me mad I’m not going, but it looks like the list is full of local guys so I’m not sure I would have been able to participate anyway. I’ve passed word along that I’m bulking up for next year. The good thing is that they’re putting up a temporary fence. I might stand a chance next year if they put it a few feet behind the infield.
IN OUR COVERAGE THIS WEEK: Look for a feature on Michael Precise tomorrow, I’ll get it posted later on and it will be in the print version should you want to deposit 50 cents in a local rack and boost our economy. In Wednesday’s paper, we’ll have a SBC Tournament package with a feature on closer Josh Storm, the Marianna native who set a school record with 12 saves this year and a general preview.
BASKETBALL: Here’s some more information on the four signees I told you about a few weeks ago.
SOFTBALL: Troy added two more softball signees, one of which has Dothan ties in shortstop Tiffany Burks, who played two years for Wallace in Dothan.
FROM THE TRAINING TABLE: Congratulations to Chuck Ash, the Troy head trainer who was inducted into the state Hall of Fame for Alabama athletic trainers. Remember when Omar Haugabook was able to recover from a hamstring injury and play against UGA? Thank Chuck.
