The Troy Minor Americans held a 13-6 lead heading into the top of the sixth inning, but six batters later Troy was clinging to a 13-8 lead and Greenville had the bases loaded in an elimination game of the district tournament.

Troy head coach Ken LaBrant and put Wood Jinright, who had been catching all game, on the mound with one out. Jinright struck out the first batter he saw and forced a ground ball to end the game.

“Wood is good about throwing strikes and he did that for us tonight,” LaBrant said. “He was catching and we didn’t know how he would do, but he was great.”

Jackson Murphy picked up the win for Troy and Jinright got the save. Murphy threw 4.2 innings and allowed five runs on six hits for the win. He struck out six and walked six.

Troy surrendered several walks in the game, but the offense picked up where the pitching lacked.

“Greenville is a good team and we told the guys when we got up big to not count them out,” LaBrant said. “But our guys hit a lot better today and they played great defense.”

Greenville scored the first run of the game in the top of the first, but Murphy forced Greenville to leave the bases loaded and Troy scored four runs to go up 4-1.

Greenville again capitalized on Troy walks and tightened the score at 4-3 in the second.

Troy pushed six runs across in the bottom of the second to push the lead to 10-3. The Trojans came within one run of the mercy rule limit with two more runs in the third. Troy led 12-3.

Greenville chopped the lead to 12-5 with two runs in the fourth and each team scored one run in the fifth for a 13-6 score.

Greenville scored two runs and had the bases loaded with one out in the sixth before Jinright closed the door on the comeback and the final stood at 13-8 Troy.

Dawson Hamlin led Troy, going 3-for-3 with two runs scored. Nick Lewis was 2-for-2 with two runs scored. Murphy Renfroe was 2-for-3 with one run scored. Jinright, Hunter Reeves, Jabronski Williams and Reed Johnson each had one hit and one run scored.

Murphy was 2-for-3. Jack LaBrant scored two runs and Reed Jinright scored one run.

Troy plays at 6 p.m. today in the tournament quarterfinals and will face the loser of the Geneva-Enterprise Americans game that was played at 8 p.m. last night.

Click for a photo gallery of Monday’s game