Sub-district tourneys

By Ken Rogers, The Messenger

Troy's Dixie Minor tournament teams won Sub-District championships on Friday night.

The Troy Americans completed a sweep of the tournament in Brantley when it defeated the host team 15-1 in four innings in the title game.

Kyle Daugherty and Robert Benton pitched the game for the Troy Americans. Storm Worthington narrowly missed a home run when his long fly to right-center slammed into the fence.

The Troy Dixie Minor Nationals beat the Enterprise Americans 3-2 in the Sub-District 1 championship played in Elba.

Austin Rushing was the winning pitcher going the full six innings allowing only three hits and two runs with nine strikeouts.

Troy jumped out on top with two runs in the first inning.

Tripp Blackmon and Austin Rushing led off with singles.

Chandler Avant then knocked in Blackmon from third base with a fielder's choice.

With one out Dustin Newman drew a walk.

With Rushing on third base Newman stole second and the throw down to second went into center field

allowing Rushing to score.

In the fourth inning Enterprise evened the score.

Seth Hundley and William Seery both singled then Laken Grimes hit a line drive to right-center field which scored Hundley and Seery.

Grimes failed to advance to second when the throw came to the plate too late to get Seery.

Catcher Dustin Newman received the ball and threw down to shortstop Chandler Avant for the put out at second base.

Neither team scored again until the bottom of the sixth with one out when John Michael Stephens hit a ground ball back to the pitcher who then overthrew the first baseman allowing Stephens to advance to second base.

On the next pitch Stephens attempted to advance to third on a passed ball when the Enterprise catcher overthrew the third baseman allowing Stephens to score the winning run.

The Troy Americans avoided the final-game drama. They scored five runs in the top of the first inning and never looked back in their victory over Brantley.

Reid Dickey had a two-run base hit and Luke LaBrant hit the first of his two doubles in that big first inning. Brantley LeCroy hit a run-scoring ground-rule double in the third inning.

Overall, Joey Denison hit .667 to lead the team at Sub-District. The Americans gave up eight runs in four games - but only one earned run.

&uot;Our pitchers did a good job the whole tournament,&uot; coach David Dickey said. &uot;Robert Benton came in the second inning and did a nice job in the final game.

&uot;Getting that big lead early sure helped. Everyone got to play, and that's important, too.&uot;

The Troy National's next game will be Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Zion Chapel when they begin the District Tournament against Brantley.

The winner of that contest will play Wednesday at 4 p.m. against the Sub-District 3 champion Troy Americans, who have a first-round bye.

The loser is scheduled to play again Thursday against a team to be named later.