NEW ORLEANS, La. – New Orleans Privateers baseball (3-7) will leave the state for the first time this campaign as they travel to Riddle-Pace Field in Troy, Ala. for a weekend series against the Troy Trojans (7-6) starting Friday night at 6:00 p.m.
Although Troy is a member of the Sun Belt and a former conference foe, the two schools will be meeting for just the 22nd time on the diamond Friday night. Troy leads the all-time series 16-5 with the Privateers, including a four-game sweep at Riddle-Pace Field in 2011. The last Privateers victory in the series was a 13-10 victory on March 28, 2009 on the Lakefront.
The Privateers enter the series on a four-game losing streak, after being swept by Indiana State last weekend, and dropping game two of a midweek doubleheader to Texas Southern last Tuesday.
Despite the slump in the win-loss column, Privateers bats have been strong as of late with the team batting .269 overall and seven Privateers batting over .300 for the season. Leading the way is designated hitter/left fielder
Reese Kanter. He leads the team in batting average (.378), doubles (4), total bases (18), is tied for first in on-base percentage (.477) and is second in slugging percentage (.486).
Hot-hitting freshman outfielder
Hezekiah Randolph looks to extend his hitting streak to seven games on Friday night. The last time Randolph was held without a hit was Feb. 22 against South Alabama, and he has tallied a hit in seven of the nine games he's played in this season.
Coach Maestri will stick with the same rotation on the bump for the third weekend in a row. Junior righty
Alex Smith (0-2, 6.28 ERA) will start Friday, before redshirt-junior
Darron McKigney (0-1, 4.72 ERA) gets the nod on Saturday. Junior right-hander
Nick Halliday (2-0, 2.87 ERA) will close out the weekend with a start on Sunday.
Troy host the Privateers this weekend led by head coach Bobby Pearce, who recently collected his 400th win at Troy in a 3-2 victory over Central Michigan on Feb 23. In building Troy into a mid-major power, Pearce has led his team to three NCAA tournament appearances, and has won the most games out of any school in the state of Alabama since taking over in 2003.
Despite only batting .261 as a team this season, Troy enters the weekend as a dangerous foe for Privateer pitching. The Trojans have hit 13 home runs so far this season, which is good for third overall in the NCAA. Junior utility player Trevin Hall, junior outfielder Jo El-Bennett, and junior infielder Nick Masonia are tied for the team lead with three home runs apiece. The Trojans have hit home runs in 9 of their 13 games so far, including four games with multi-home runs.
The series gets underway Friday night at 6:00 p.m., before games starting at 1:00 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday. All Privateers baseball games this season can be heard online free of charge on UNOPrivateers.com with
Emmanuel Pepis calling the action. Fans wanting to watch video of the contests can pay $5.95 per game, or $9.95 for the entire weekend on TroyTrojans.com.
