Middle Tennessee State University Athletics
Tuesday, March 24
Murfreesboro, Tenn.
6:00 PM
Middle Tennessee
vs
No. 2 Vanderbilt
MT to Host Pair of Midweek Night Games
3/23/2015 4:15:00 PM | Baseball
Welcomes No. 4 Vanderbilt Tues. & Lipscomb Weds.
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – Middle Tennessee (13-8, 5-1 C-USA) returns home to the friendly confines of Reese Smith Jr. Field to begin a season-long, six-game homestand. The first-place Blue Raiders will host a pair of non-conference night games against No. 4 Vanderbilt on Tuesday (6 p.m.) and Lipscomb on Wednesday (6 p.m.).
Fresh off the first road series win over a nationally-ranked team, MT will look to keep the momentum rolling as it continues a stretch featuring eight games in 10 days.
Junior LHP Tyler Troutt (0-1, 4.32 ERA) will make his second career start Tuesday night. Troutt, a transfer from Chattanooga State, went three innings and surrendered a run on four hits in his first start on March 11 at Memphis.
Heath Slatton (1-4, 8.84 ERA) will make his sixth start of the season Wednesday night. The junior RHP has struggled a bit with command, allowing 12 walks and five hit-batters, but also has 14 strikeouts in 19.1 innings of work.
Slatton has gone five innings in three of his five starts, and most recently threw an inning-and-a-third of relief at Florida Atlantic over the weekend.
The Blue Raiders enter week seven of the season with a .271 team batting average, led by Ronnie Jebavy (.368, 1 HR, 12 RBI, 13 SB) and Brad Jarreau (.366, 10 RBI, 17 R) who rank sixth and seventh among C-USA batting average leaders. Jebavy has recorded 12 multi-hit games and leads the team in average, slugging, hits, total bases and stolen bases.
MT averages 9.5 hits per game and is scoring 5.6 runs per contest, but the Blue Raiders are looking to pick up the slack in midweek play. In three midweek games so far, MT is batting .154 with three runs total. The only bright spot during the week has been Jared Allen who is slugging .909 with two home runs.
The Blue Raiders will renew their annual rivalry against defending national champion Vanderbilt (19-5) Tuesday night. The Commodores are hitting over .300 as a team, and have won two straight after a road series win over Auburn. Vanderbilt is led by SS Dansby Swanson (.365, 3 HR, 23 RBI 10 SB, 30 R) and OF Rhett Wiseman (.390, 4 HR, 20 RBI) at the plate.
Vanderbilt leads the overall series 58-24 dating back to 1974 and has claimed 10 of the previous 11 meetings. The Commodores won last year's game in Murfreesboro, 4-3, as four of the previous seven matchups at Reese Smith Jr. Field have been decided by a run. MT's last win in the series came at home on March 20, 2013.
MT will play another local-rival in Lipscomb (13-7) Wednesday night. The Bisons took two out of three from Xavier last weekend, and are scheduled to host Belmont on Tuesday. Lipscomb has three hitters with a batting average over .360 and four with at least two home runs on the year.
The Blue Raiders and Bisons will meet for the 48th time with Lipscomb holding the slight advantage in the series, 24-23. MT won the last meeting, 7-5, on March 25, 2014 at Reese Smith Jr. Field.
Both games will air on 92.5 FM WMOT2. Fans can also listen and watch online at GoBlueRaiders.com.
Players Mentioned
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