Troy Trojans Welcome Return To Blue Wahoos Stadium 

For the fourth time, the Troy University baseball team will play in this weekend’s Cox Diamond Invitational at Blue Wahoos Stadium.

It will be a welcome return.

“There are many, many good reasons to be there,” said Trojans coach Mark Smartt whose team is coming off a three-game series loss against the No. 1 ranked, unbeaten Florida Gators (11-0) in Gainesville, where Troy had leads in two of the games.

“The first is that it’s one of the better venues in the Southeast region at every level,” Smartt said. “It is a fabulous park to be in.

“The second reason is the Panhandle region has been very strong in our recruiting efforts through the years. We’ve had many good players from the Pensacola region and surrounding region. It is always good to get our program in that market again and get Troy’s name in front of these young players coming up.

“And third, we have a strong alumni group in that region that always comes out to support our team. We’ve always had good crowds playing there.”

As part of the weekend, the Pensacola Troy Alumni Chapter will host a post-game event Saturday for area supporters, following the team’s game Saturday (11 a.m.) against in-state rival Samford University. The Bulldogs (10-1), who had their game Tuesday at Auburn cancelled by weather, will bring a seven-game win streak into this weekend.

Troy (8-4), which had a scheduled road game Tuesday at Alabama-Birmingham, begins the Cox Diamond Invitational –presented by Pensacola Sports -- in a featured matchup Friday night (6 p.m.) against Michigan State (8-3). The two teams met in 2016 in this same event at Blue Wahoos Stadium.

Troy played in the tournament for three consecutive years from 2015-17. This will be the first time for the Trojans’ current group of players.

“It is a different challenge,” Smartt said. “You have three days, three games, three different teams to prepare for, so it makes it a little more difficult I think for every team.

“But for the college baseball fan, what’s better than six games in three days? The format is great and we certainly are looking forward to it.”

The event format is for two games each day Friday through Sunday. The fourth team in the tournament is the University of Louisiana (4-8), a fellow member with Troy in the Sun Belt Conference.

Tickets are $12 each day and include ability to watch both games that day.

The Cox Diamond Invitational is sponsored by Cox Communications. All six games will be televised on Cox Sports Television with Blue Wahoos announcer Chris Garagiola returning this weekend to handle the play-by-play for each game.

“Pensacola Sports does such a great job with this tournament,” Smartt said. “Ray Palmer (executive director) and his staff are incredible people. They have been so good to our program through the years. The hospitality is off the charts.”

The Trojans (8-4) had a fast start slowed by a three-game loss against the No. 1-ranked Gators. They lost 3-2 Friday and 10-7 on Saturday in games where they had leads. Troy led 2-0 into the seventh inning Friday, then 7-2 into the fifth inning Saturday before Florida put up a six-run, seventh inning. The Gators completed the sweep with a 7-1 win Sunday.

“I liked the way we competed,” Smart said. “I thought we accepted the challenge of competition very well. We did not execute well in game Friday and Saturday. We played very poor defensively in key moments. We made some critical mistakes in all phases of the game.

“We left disappointed that we didn’t get one or two games, because we had a chance. But we left confident that we can learn and grown from that and get better. We had not played a lot of close games up until that moment. We will get better from that.”

“The biggest assessment is how do we respond from the three losses.”

Smartt is counting on the experience at Florida to help better his team the rest of the season. The Trojans begin 10 consecutive weekends of conference series’ beginning March 13-15.

While encouraged with how Troy played Friday and Saturday against the top-ranked Gators, Smartt is hoping his team can eliminate fielding issues that proved costly.

“The biggest separation in the series was defense,” Smartt said. “They didn’t make an error in three days and we made eight (errors). Friday and Saturday in some key spots we broke down. That’s part of the growth process. That’s part of the learning curve.

“We’ve got a good ballclub, no question about that. Now we have to go out and prove it. The beauty of baseball is you get a lot more opportunities than in most sports. We get to go right back to work.”

WANT TO GO?

WHAT: Cox Diamond Invitational

WHO: Troy, University of Louisiana, Samford, Michigan State.

WHERE: Blue Wahoos Stadium.

WHEN: Friday through Sunday

GAMES: Friday: Samford vs. UL (2 p.m.), Troy vs. Michigan State (6 p.m.). SATURDAY -- Troy vs. Samford (11 a.m.), Michigan State vs. UL (3 p.m.). SUNDAY -- Michigan State vs. Samford (11 a.m.), Troy vs. UL (3 p.m.)

TICKETS: $12 for single day pass (both games), $27 for three-day weekend pass all games.