Junior Dixie Boys have victorious weekend as Series kicks off

Published 10:34 pm Monday, August 3, 2009

The Troy Junior Dixie Boys played two games in the World Series over the weekend, defeating Arkansas 14-4 Saturday and Louisiana 11-9 Sunday.

The win Saturday was a mercy-rule win, with Troy using a seven-run fifth inning to go up 11-4. Troy never looked back, finishing the game in six innings.

Troy did trail 4-2 at one point, but was able to rally for the win.

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Miles Loving and Blake Craft had two hits and three RBIs each to lead Troy, while Tripp Blackmon pitched 3 2/3 innings of shutout relief to help preserve the win.

Head coach Sam Kitchens said Blackmon may have been the key to victory.

“Tripp came in and just did a fantastic job for us,” Kitchens said.

Troy’s offense had contributions from nearly the entire team.

“We had a few hits at opportune times from guys up and down the lineup that really helped us,” Kitchens said.

Troy’s win Sunday saw the Trojans fall behind 8-2 after three innings.

However, Troy battled back with eight runs in the fourth to take a 10-8 lead.

The big blow of that inning was a three-run homer by Chandler Avant that tied the game.

Avant said he wasn’t sure if the ball was going to clear the fence on his home run, nor was he sure how to express his excitement.

“I thought it might be gone, but I wasn’t sure,” Avant said. “I was pretty happy. I can’t really explain how I felt.”

Avant pitched the final four innings of relief and had no runs charged to him.

Avant was close to surpassing the 45-pitch count going into the seventh inning, but Kitchens decided to stick with Avant.

“I didn’t give it a thought,” Kitchens said. “We had to win this game tonight. We fought to hard to comeback. We could not take a chance because we only had a couple of pitchers left we could throw.”

The two wins by Troy sent it into a game with Georgia Monday that it won 5-4.

Troy is not the only team in action, however, as the field narrowed from 12 teams Saturday to six teams heading into Monday’s action.

In first round action Saturday, Louisiana defeated Mississippi 6-3 to move into the winner’s bracket.

Georgia defeated Tennessee in a defensive battle, 3-2.

Virginia edged North Carolina 8-7.

South Carolina shut out Florida, but was only able to win 1-0.

Texas blew out the host team, Enterprise, 16-6.

In elimination games Sunday, Mississippi eliminated Arkansas 5-2.

North Carolina blew out Tennessee 19-3 to eliminate Tennessee.

Florida shut out Enterprise 8-0 to eliminate the host team.

In winner’s bracket action, Georgia defeated Virginia 19-3 via mercy rule.

Texas defeated South Carolina in a game that went 11 innings.

On Monday, every team still alive, with the exception of Texas, played two games.

South Carolina defeated Mississippi 5-3 to eliminate Mississippi.

Florida blew out North Carolina 14-1 to eliminate North Carolina.

Louisiana eliminated Virginia 8-2.

In the second set of games Monday, South Carolina defeated Georgia 8-0 to eliminate Georgia and set up a game against Texas Tuesday at 8 p.m.

Louisiana eliminated Florida 11-7 to set up a rematch with Troy Sunday at 5 p.m.