Marshall vs. Troy Week 11 Preview

Troy’s Jimmy Janicki takes a lead off the bag. (Photo courtesy of the Troy athletics department)

The Troy Trojans (20-21, 10-8 Sun Belt) will travel to Jack Cook Field in Huntington, West Virginia to face off against the Marshall Thundering Herd (18-21, 9-9 Sun Belt) in a three game weekend series. First pitch of game 1 is scheduled for 6:00 PM ET on Friday, with games 2 and 3 set for Saturday and Sunday.

Troy currently sits at fifth in the Sun Belt standings, behind South Alabama and App State on tiebreaker. Marshall, despite being just one game behind the Trojans enters the series at ninth in the Sun Belt. Four teams carry a .500 Sun Belt record heading into Weekend #11 (Texas State, Arkansas State & ULM), and Marshall is behind all on tiebreaker. This goes to show that this series could carry vital postseason implications, considering that ten teams are allowed entry into the Sun Belt Tournament. 11th placed Georgia State is just one game back on Marshall and two on Troy, so neither team can afford to slip up here with only nine conference games to play apiece following the conclusion of this series.

Projected Pitchers

Game 1

Troy: Sr. LHP Benjamin Stubbs (3.67 ERA, 1.20 WHIP, 52-16 K/BB)

Marshall: Sr. LHP Bryce Blevins (4.38 ERA, 1.21 WHIP, 64-12 K/BB)

Game 2

Troy: Sr. RHP Tommy Egan (4.70 ERA, 1.32 WHIP, 65-15 K/BB)

Marshall: Gr. RHP Drew Harlow (4.80 ERA, 1.45 WHIP, 57-22 K/BB)

Game 3

Troy: TBA

Marshall: So. RHP Kenyon Collins (5.36 ERA, 1.60 WHIP, 51-24 K/BB)

Troy enters this series looking to bounce back after a midweek loss to Jacksonville State, and won their weekend series two games to one against Louisiana prior to that. Marshall has been very hot and cold as of late, as they look to snap a three game losing streak in which the Herd were outscored 22-6 dating back to last Saturday. Prior to their current run, Marshall was on a three game winning streak in which they averaged eight runs per game. Troy holds the advantage in the all-time series between these schools, having won five of their six meetings. This will be the first time the series has been played in Huntington since 2023, and the second time overall.

Both Troy and Marshall will employ their staff aces on Friday; two senior lefties will go head-to-head in what should be a fun pitching matchup. Marshall’s Bryce Blevins was fantastic in both of his last two starts, and the Herd have won the game in seven of Blevins’ last eight outings. His last start was particularly special, tossing 118 pitches with 7 strikeouts and just 2 earned runs allowed en route to a win over South Alabama. Keep an eye out for Troy’s Drew Nelson to maybe eat some innings out of the bullpen or do some damage at the plate; the two-way star was recently named as a midseason semifinalist for the John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Year.

These are two very even matched teams looking to improve their Sun Belt standing as time runs out before the conference tournament. They are also built similarly on the offensive side, in terms of both squads being very good at getting on base and hitting for contact to move runners around. Both teams reside around the middle of the pack in terms of home runs and slugging percentage, with Troy holding slight advantages in both statistics (43 HR, .454 SLG vs. 31 HR, .425 SLG). The margin between the two in on base percentage is more narrow, with the Trojans getting on base at a rate of .397 and Marshall at .392. It is also worth noting that more than half of Troy’s home runs have occurred in conference play with 23, while Marshall has hit just 11 home runs against Sun Belt competition. Sophomore catcher Jimmy Janicki has stood out for the Trojans’ power bats, having hit 12 home runs overall and 6 in the conference so far this season. Junior outfielder Evan Bottone has led Marshall’s offense, carrying a 1.022 OPS and .472 OBP with 6 home runs into the weekend.

Player to Watch:

There are more than a few extremely deserving options here, but I’ll be going with Troy catcher Jimmy Janicki. Janicki has taken his hitting to another level as of late, producing some eye-popping numbers over the past couple weeks. In the Trojans’ last seven games beginning with an April 11th doubleheader against Texas State, Janicki has recorded 16 hits in 33 at-bats in addition to an insane 19 RBI and 4 HR. Also in that stretch, Janicki has put together a 7 game hitting streak, hit 5 doubles, and has only struck out one time. This makes for an incredulous 1.000 slugging percentage and wild .5401 on base percentage in a span of time that his team has averaged 9.857 runs during. Oh, and if that wasn’t impressive enough already this stretch also includes a walk-off grand slam which secured a massive Sun Belt win against Louisiana on April 19th. Jimmy Janicki is a must-watch hitter who has excelled as the Sun Belt season goes on, and watch out for him to do some damage throughout this series.

Editor’s Game 1 Picks:

As I said before, these teams are quite evenly matched, have similar strengths and weaknesses, and will be sending their aces out to the mound on Friday. This is also a tremendously important series for both sides with the Sun Belt standings being so very close and the season winding down. I’ve been going back and forth on this one and really could see it going either way but I’ll be backing the Trojans in game one at least. I love this team’s offense, they have been the better team recently and almost took down an exceptionally talented team in Jacksonville State in their last midweek game before some rough late innings from the bullpen. Jimmy Janicki has been mashing baseballs recently, and this team has some real sluggers throughout their lineup with Janicki, Aaron Piasecki, Josh Pyne and Steven Meier all bringing SLG percentages of .900 or more into Friday. This should make for an exciting weekend series between two respectable mid major baseball programs down in Huntington, and both teams need these wins ahead of the postseason.