FROM CBB NEWS SOURCE
The Troy University Trojans baseball team will be spending much of the spring at the friendly confines of Riddle-Pace Field.
The Trojans are scheduled to play 31 games at their home park in 2010 and will not go more than a week at any point during the season without a home game.
That schedule should prove beneficial to a squad that returns 19 players from a 2009 team that finished with a 33-23 record.
“It is a favorable schedule as far as road trips and the amount of travel, which is a credit to Coach Mark Smartt,” Trojans coach Bobby Pierce said. “It is a good schedule that should prepare our team for conference play and, hopefully, post season.”
The Trojans will open the season at home the weekend of February 19-21 against Hofstra from the Colonial Athletic Association. The Pride struggled to an 11-32 record in 2009.
“With the 14th week added back to the schedule, made it difficult for everyone to fill that week,” Pierce said. We were very happy that a friend in the Hofstra program was able to work out a trip to Troy for that opening weekend.”
Troy will follow that with a home game against Samford, one of five teams the Trojans will face during the year in home-and-home series. The other home-and-home non-conference foes are Jacksonville State, Auburn, UAB and Kennesaw State.
Following the Samford game, the Trojans will hit the road to face Arkansas, one of two teams on Troy’s schedule to have advanced to the College World Series in June. The Razorbacks finished 2009 with a 41-24 record and finished ranked No. 7 in the final RPI and ranked No. 4 in the nation in the major polls.
“Is a great schedule that should provide RPI strength, if we are able to win some games,” Pierce said. “Arkansas returns practically their entire club from the CWS team. They were the youngest team in Omaha in June and will be very good again this year.”
Troy will open March on the road at JSU before returning to Riddle-Pace Field for a three-game series against Bethune Cookman. The Wildcats are a member of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and are regular’s in the NCAA Tournament. They are coming off a 32-28 mark in 2009.
Troy hits the road for another game against a 2009 CWS team when the Trojans visit Pete Taylor Park in Hattiesburg for a single game against Southern Miss on March 10. The Golden Eagles posted a 40-26 mark last year and made their first trip to Omaha.
The other non-conference foes for the Trojans will be North Florida, which visits Riddle-Pace Field for two games on March 16-17, and Brown, which will play a four-game series in Troy on March 27-29. The Bears will be the first Ivy League team Troy has ever faced in baseball.
The Trojans will open Sun Belt Conference play at home March 12-14 against Florida Atlantic. Troy will play five home and five road league series during the year, with other home series set against UALR (April 2-4), defending league champion Middle Tennessee (April 16-18), Western Kentucky (April 30-May 2) and Arkansas State (May 14-16).
Road SBC series include trips to Miami to face FIU (March 19-21), at UL Lafayette (April 9-11), UNO (April 23-25), ULM (May 7-9) and South Alabama (May 20-22).
The 2010 Sun Belt Conference tournament is scheduled for May 26-29 in Murfreesboro, Tenn.
Troy fans can get an early look at the Trojans on Sunday, October 18, when they play their annual fall exhibition game against the Ontario Blue Jays, an 18-under travel team.
