Rained Out

Published 10:00 pm Wednesday, August 5, 2009

The Troy Junior Dixie Boys will have to wait another day to try and bring home a World Series championship.

Wednesday’s games at the Enterprise Recreational Complex were rained out. Play will resume today at 9 a.m., when South Carolina plays Texas in an elimination game.

The winner of the contest will then play Troy for the World Series championship 30 minutes following the conclusion of the first game.

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Troy and Texas have already met once in the tournament, with Texas picking up a 7-4 win Monday. The game between the two teams was Troy’s second game Monday, while Texas had received a bye through Monday’s first playing session.

Troy has yet to face South Carolina.

However, not it’s not just the time of the games that has changed; the lineups will change drastically, as well.

Dixie Baseball uses a pitch count system to determine pitcher’s eligibility. Pitchers that pitch over 45 pitches in tournament play must rest for at least 30 hours from the time their last pitch is thrown, while pitchers that throw over 75 pitches must rest for at least 40 hours from the time their last pitch is thrown.

Since the last game on Tuesday ended at roughly 10 p.m., nearly all of the pitchers for all three remaining teams will be eligible to pitch.

“That should put all of our pitchers back in it,” said Troy head coach Sam Kitchens. “We’ll have Tripp (Blackmon), Chandler (Avant), Blake (Craft), just pretty much everybody ready to go.”

While Troy will get its pitchers back so, too, will South Carolina and Texas.

“Of course, the delay until (Thursday) will put all of South Carolina and Texas’s pitchers in play … so they’ll be able to use anyone that doesn’t go over 45 pitches in the first game,” Kitchens said.

The only exception will be South Carolina’s Charlie Barnes, who threw a complete game against Texas Tuesday night. Barnes would become eligible once again at roughly 2 p.m. if South Carolina were to play in the championship game against Troy.

Still, the fact remains that Texas and South Carolina need to win two games in order to take home the title, while Troy only needs to win once.

“It does give us an advantage, but we still have to play the game,” Kitchens said.