COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – The Tennessee Tech baseball team
continues its action with five games slated for this week. The
Golden Eagles will host Belmont on March 11, and play a pair of
double headers against Valparaiso on March 13 and 14.
The Golden Eagles have been hot in the early part of the season,
putting together a five-game winning streak before dropping the
series finale against Toledo last week. Tech is hitting .315 as a
team this season, and has a team ERA of 4.77. The Golden Eagles
lead the OVC with 34 doubles on the year.
Belmont enters the week at 6-6 overall, and have played four games
against mutual opponents of Tech this season. Middle Tennessee beat
both Tech and Belmont, while Toledo went 2-1 against the Bruins,
and 1-3 against Tech. Tech swept the season series against Belmont
last year, winning 7-4 in Cookeville, and 13-3 in Nashville. The
Bruins lead the all-time series 27-28.
Valparaiso (4-6) enters the week on a five-game losing streak after
playing No. 21 Arkansas and Memphis last week. The Crusaders will
play a double header at Mississippi State on March 11 before coming
to Cookeville for the four-game series. Valparaiso does own a
couple wins over an Ohio Valley Conference team, as it beat
Morehead State twice to open the season. Valpo won’t play its
first home game of the season until March 27.
Tech sophomore A.J. Kirby-Jones has been effective early in the
season from the plate and the mound. Kirby-Jones is batting .311,
and leads the team in home runs (4), RBIs (18), total bases (33)
and slugging percentage (.733). On the mound Kirby-Jones holds a
1.54 ERA with 15 strikeouts, while opponents hit just .200 against
him.
Tech’s 8-3 start is slightly better than a season ago to this
point. The 2008 Golden Eagles went 7-3-1 in their first 11 games,
and went on to win 35 games, the second most wins in school
history.
Looking ahead to next week, Tech will play a mid-week road contest
against Southeastern Conference opponent Tennessee on March 18,
before returning home to host Southeast Missouri in a three-game
series to open Ohio Valley Conference play.