In routine with the weekend, the Troy Post 70 19U team fell short in the championship round of the American Legion Freedom Classic after once again splitting games on Sunday.

The team started the tournament splitting games both Thursday and Friday and Sunday was no different for the Troy team.

Troy Post 70’s Austin Fain threw a no-hitter in the semifinals of the Freedom Classic on Sunday afternoon leading his team to a 2-0 win over Tallahassee Post 13, but after a back-and-forth game Post 70 fell to the Ozark Majors 11-10 in nine innings in the tournament championship.

Post 70 advanced to the semifinals after posting a 2-2 record of the first two days of competition.

Fain, the team’s starting pitcher in their first match up Sunday, stole the show in the semifinals against Tallahassee Post 13. The only base runners that Fain allowed during the ballgame were from a walk and error. Fain dominated Post 13’s batters all afternoon striking out 11 batters. Post 70’s head coach John Rushing said the 19U starting pitcher had a phenomenal game on the mound throwing one of his best games.

“It was one of the best games that I have seen him pitch,” Rushing said. “He has thrown a few no-hitters in high school, but he was facing a team that I believe will have a real good chance of winning the Florida State Championship. It was a pretty impressive outing for him.”

The semifinal game was a rematch between Post 70 and Post 13, two teams that met in the championship game of the Albany Tournament from earlier this season.

Both of the teams went scoreless over the first two innings, but Post 70 was able to break through in the third inning putting up the only two runs in the game.

Christopher Simon began the inning with a base hit for Post 70. He was able to advance to second base during the next at bat due to a wild pitch. With two outs in the inning and Simon on third after a stolen base, Rush Hixon drove in Simon with a single, giving Post 70 the lead.

Hixon continued his damage in the inning when in attempt to steal second, he rounded the bag to third after a wild throw from the Tallahassee catcher.

Hunter Baggett drove in Hixon with a base hit for the game’s second run.

Post 70 finished the game with a total of seven hits. Simon was the only who finished the game with two hits. Hixon, Baggett, Dustin Jordan, Zach Lightsey and Riley Jobin all finished with one hit for the 19U team.

“We were able to scratch our two runs out in the third inning, and we were able to hold on,” Rushing said. “I was on the guys the entire time to stay on them and do not let them come back in the seventh inning. And, we did. A lot of that was on Fain.”

Coming off an easy win, game two started well for the Post 70 19U team.

Troy was able to score two runs in the first inning, giving them an early lead over the Ozark Majors, but the lead didn’t last long.

Ozark was able to score nine runs giving the Ozark team a 9-2 lead over Troy.

Troy answered Ozark’s nine runs in the fifth inning by scoring five runs getting themselves back into the game.

After a leadoff walk by Baggett and a base hit by Tyler Sheehan, Lightsey was able to reach due to an error that scored Baggett from third base. Simon followed suit and singled driving in Sheehan. After a base hit from Trace Johnson, Post 70 had the bases loaded. With Keith Johnston and Rushing earning walks, a wild pitch and a catcher obstruction later Troy had five runs in the inning cutting the team’s deficit to 9-7.

Troy came back in the seventh and managed to take the lead. Hixon again got the inning started with a single. With one out in the inning, Sheehan tripled scoring Hixon for the inning’s first run.

With Jordan and Sheehan both on base, Simon nailed a base hit driving in both runs for Post 70 tying the game at 9-9.

After Troy tied the game in the seventh, the two teams found themselves in extra innings. Both teams went scoreless in the eighth; Ozark came up and began the ninth with a single. After a dropped third strike set up Ozark with runners on both first and third, the Majors received a sacrifice fly that won them the championship.