Sports Editor

OZARK – Enterprise beat Troy 5-4 on Tuesday night to claim the District Dixie Belles Tournament championship and punch their ticket to state, which will start on July 20 in North Chilton.

With one loss to Enterprise in the tournament already, the Troy Belles had forced a deciding game with a 10-6 victory earlier on Tuesday.

Allie Park and Lindsey Garner got on base and scored in the second inning to put Troy up 2-1 early, but Enterprise came back to take a 5-2 lead. Chelsey Howard tripled in the third, but the Troy bats fell silent in the fourth and fifth innings of play.

But Troy begin to rally in the sixth.

Howard started things off with an in-the-park homerun and Autumn Welch drove home Ashley Simmons with a timely hit. Enterprise was able to record the last out of the inning before Troy could tie it up and in the bottom of the seventh Troy went 0-for-3 at the plate to finish the game.

Despite the loss, head coach Bo Carlisle was proud of his team’s effort.

"Allie (Park) did a great job, as did the other eight behind her," said Carlisle. "It was a well-played game. Someone has to win and someone has to lose. We just happened to come up a little short. But these girls played their hearts out."

Park pitched a complete game for Troy.

In Troy’s win over Enterprise earlier, Brittany Carlisle gave up nine hits to the eventual champions, but she didn’t allow them until the sixth and seventh innings of play. By that time Troy had built a 10 run lead, led by Howard’s three hits and single-hit efforts from Samantha Johnson, Park and Carlisle. Malerie Sanders and Ashton Spann added two runs each for Troy.

Carlisle struck out nine batters in the win for Troy.

Welch led the Troy Belles into the championship bracket on Monday night with a seven-inning pitching performance and a 17-9 win over host-team Ozark.

Troy had 14 hits on the evening. Johnson had three hits while Spann, Howard and Garner each had two. Malerie Sanders, Carlisle, Ashley Simmons and Welch had hits for Troy as well.