FINALLY! A chance to breath. Our annual Profile magazine is out the door, the Farewell Sartain edition was a hit and baseball season is underway. If you didn’t get a copy of the Sartain edition at the game, come by or call The Messenger and we’ll get one out to you.

The basketball team just could not muster enough firepower to overcome a talented Arkansas-Little Rock team. Troy lost, 74-62, in overtime.

Here is a link to the game story which has a tribute to Sartain video, photo gallery as well as game clips.

Maestri said after the game that this team’s focus will be on making a run through the conference tournament, which begins on March 3. Obviously, he and the team will be preparing to win the last two regular season games on the road but all Sun Belt teams go to the conference tournament and Troy will have a shot to make some noise if they can get things together. We shall see.

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The baseball team played its season opening series and they looked like it. The Trojans won the series over Central Michigan with victories in games 1 and 2. The Chippewas came out swinging in game three and topped the Trojans, 14-7.

Friday’s game story

Saturday’s press release for delayed game 2

Sunday’s game story

Head coach Bobby Pierce said Central Michigan had one of the best bunt games he had every seen. The Chippewas came away with five bunt single. Not to mention, the several sacrifice bunts or the ones that led to errors.

Series offensive leaders

Danny Collins – .462 AVG (6-13), 1 HR, 2 RBI

Logan Pierce – .417 AVG (5-12), 1 HR, 5 RBI

Jo-El Bennett – .375 AVG (3-8)

Boone Shear – .308 AVG (4-13), 2 HR, 7 RBI

Series pitching leaders

Tyler Ray (1-0) – 6 IP, 2 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, 1.50 ERA

Nate Hill – 2 APP, 2 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 5 K

Tyson Workman – 2 APP, 2.2 IP, 2 SV, 5 K

Pierce said he like the approach of some of the new guys including Bennett and Collins and was pleased with their comfort level at the plate. Collins committed three errors at third base, however, and will need to clean that up. Bobby Pierce also mentioned that Logan looked better at the plate. Bobby said before the season he was looking for Logan to have a better start and it seems he will. Logan hit a BOMB off of Central Michigan’s closer, who is a good pitcher, in the third game.

One guy that I was interested in seeing was Joe Hernandez. The right-hander threw two innings in game two and did a decent job. He did allow three runs, two of which were unearned, but struck out two with the bases loaded.

Troy will not play a mid-week game and will travel to face an always talented Southern Miss squad.