Troy Americans headed to Greenville for district tourney
Published 12:00 am Friday, July 12, 2002
The Troy Americans beat Highland Home 11-7 on Wednesday night to bring home the Dixie Youth Sub-District title.
Troy finished the tournament a perfect 4-0 and will advance to the district tournament which starts in Greenville on Monday.
Americans’ head coach Philip East was pleased with his team’s play.
"Our kids played great defensively for the entire tournament," said East. "Our pitchers kept us in the first two games until our bats came to life in the last two games. It was a total team effort."
Aaron Allen started on the mound for Troy, allowing two runs on three hits before being relieved by Jonathan Wade in the third. Wade shut Highland Home down until the sixth, when the host-team rallied with five straight runs. But Clifton Brady came in to end comeback, striking out the final two batters.
Troy opened the scoring in the first inning. Brady reached on a single and came home on an Allen sacrifice fly. Alex Adams singled in the third and was brought home by Parker Sanders’ ground ball hit.
Highland Home fought back to tie the game 2-2 in the bottom half of the third.
Troy took the lead for good in the fourth inning, plating three runs as Rickey Goodwin singled, Brady advanced the runner with a single of his own, and both players scored on a Justin Henderson two-run double. Allen’s basehit RBI gave Troy a 5-2 lead.
Troy broke the game open with six runs in the sixth.
Wade led things off with a double and rounded the bases on Jace Colley’s RBI triple. Goodwin doubled him home for his second hit of the night and Brady answered the call with his third hit of the evening, plating his teammate. Ryan Skeen and Henderson added basehit RBIs and Adams topped off the scoring with a run-scoring single for Troy, also in the inning.
– Special thanks to Philip East for continuing reports on the Troy Americans