The first part of the journey is finished for the Troy Pre-Minor Tournament team. Troy beat Eufaula 17-9 to cap a perfect district tournament run at the Troy Sportsplex Wednesday night.

But the championship game victory took a back seat to the real reason the group of Troy 8 year olds is playing for this year. Troy compiled 23 hits in the win to push the tournament total to 125 hits for Miracle Field.

“We saw what the best part about coaching this age group is tonight,” Troy head coach Frank Scarbrough said. “Because one hour from now these boys will not be worrying about the win, but they will wonder where the trophy will go and how much money they have raised for Miracle Field.”

For every hit recorded by the Pre-Minor team a certain amount of money will be donated to the Troy Miracle Field fund. Each player is sponsored and the team has three business sponsors who will donate $1 per team hit at the end of the Troy run.

Troy heads to Athens July 17 for the state tournament, but Scarbrough said the team will take it easy for about a week.

“This capped off about a month of five days per week of practice, a ton of practice games and all other kinds of practice,” he said. “We are going to take a break and get some rest. We will enjoy the district victory and look forward to the next round.”

Scarbrough said the team is still taking child sponsors and all are welcome to join in the fund-raising effort.

There will be a subtle difference when the Trojans head to the state tournament. Scarbrough will not have as much hair on the top of his head because he made a deal with the players that if they won the district tournament he would have his head shaved.

Not 20 minutes after the win the clippers came out and the “Bald, bald, bald” chants rang out from the Troy players.

Troy scored six runs in the first, seven runs in the second and four runs in the fourth for the win.

Noah Phillips, De’Quavian Toney, Daniel Phillips and Brock Huner each scored three runs in the victory. Tristen Carter scored two runs and Will Reeves, Jackson Giles and Noah Lowery each added one run scored.

Troy had allowed only four runs in three previous games, but Eufaula scored nine on the Trojans and Scarbrough had nothing but positive things to say about his opponent.

“They were the best team we faced and they were good, but luckily we were better,” he said.

In other Troy action, the Ozone Americans lost 10-9 to the Enterprise Nationals in Eufaula, the Minor Americans beat Elba 15-5 and will play for the championship in Brantley today at 6 p.m. against New Brockton and the Farm Nationals beat the Enterprise Americans 14-11, but lost in the championship game 11-10.

Click here for a photo gallery from Wednesday’s game