Ozone teams falls short, despite hitting

Published 11:00 pm Friday, July 1, 2011

After an emotional win over rival Enterprise on Thursday, Troy’s Ozone team fell short in the second game of the district championship series, losing 10-5.

“It was closer than it sounds,” said Coach Lee Hussey. “It was 6 to 4 going into the sixth innning, and we gave up four runs.

“When we came out, we had bases loaded. We just made a few mental errors that cost us.”

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The team continued its dominance at the plate, though, with three home runs and five hits in the game.

Nick Lewis wa 2 for 3 with a home run; Devon Suddity was 1 for 2 with a home run; Graham Wilkes was 1 for 2 with a home run; and Charlie Tisdale was 2 for 2.

That was after they’d tallied 12 hits and six homers in the first game of the series.

“That was a great game,” Hussey said of the 17-12 victory that forced the second game with Enterprise.

Bryson Gandy, Nick Lewis, Jack Labrant, Devon Suddith and Graham Wilkes all hit home runs in that game, with Lewis hitting two.

Hussey said the Ozone team consistently performed at the plate during the district tournament.

“I’ve been kind of keeping up with the stats and in the six games we played, we hit 17 home runs as a team,” he said. “The collective team average was .376.

“That’s pretty dang good.”

Hussey said the team hit well and pitched better than expected.

“We’re satisfied with our performance,” Hussey said. “I think we played really well, and these kids have a lot of good things coming to them in the future.”