Sports Editor

The Troy Post 70 Junior Legion baseball team fell to Opelika 5-4 on Friday night and head coach Russ Jinright wasn’t happy about it.

Not because of the the loss it self, but because of the circumstances surrounding the loss.

With Troy up by three runs in the fifth and final inning of the game, Opelika clicked off four straight to take the win. Jinright said the last inning was played in torrential rain and he felt the game should have been called earlier. Originally scheduled for seven innings, the umpires only called the game once Opelika had managed to take the lead.

"What I should have done is pull them off the field," Jinright said. "Wesley (Wright) couldn’t even pitch the ball good because he kept sliding off of the mound and our outfielders had no idea where the ball was going because they couldn’t see."

Opelika was able to take advantage of Wright’s and Troy’s misfortunes. Wright gave up three hits, hit a batter with a pitch, and walked three batters in the last inning, which is highly uncharacteristic of the junior from Goshen. He struck out seven batters on the day and gave up eight total hits.

Post 70 used a five-hit first inning to take an early 2-0 lead on the host team. Luke Sanders, Chase Clower, Wright, Blake Phelps and Tyson Pugh, all had singles to start Troy off in the first. Wright and Sanders scored Troy’s runs in the inning.

Opelika cut the lead in half with a run in the fourth inning. Troy added two more runs in the top of the fifth as Wright scored on a fielder’s choice and Justin Sims came home on an error.

Troy was scheduled to play two, five-inning games against Northview of Dothan on Monday night at Frazier Field.

"We’re trying to get in some more games before districts," Jinright said. "We’ve had to cancel a lot of our games because of the rain."

Troy was supposed to play Slocomb in Slocomb on Thursday night, but rain suspended that game as well.