Troy head coach Sam Kitchens was anxiuos to see how his Junior Dixie Boys team would perform as it took the field for the first time together on Thursday night.

The team would not disappoint.

Troy scored seven runs in the sixth inning to seal a 13-3 victory over Ozark in the opening round of the District 6 tournament at the Troy Sportsplex.

Leadoff batter Nick Lewis set an early tone as he blasted a solo homerun to get Troy on the board. Bryson Gandy and Grant Hughes would both walk and score on Jackson Murphy’s single in the first inning to give Troy a 3-0 advantage.

Charlie Tisdale knocked in a pair of runs in the second inning while Murphy Renfroe singled and later scored in the third on Lewis’ double to right field.

“We did a good job of scoring runs in each of the first three innings,” Kitchens said. “I think we went sour for a bit but did come back to score the seven in the sixth. We’re going to need to do a better job of keeping our intensity level up.”

Ozark would score all three of its runs in the third inning.

Grant Hughes, Charlie Tisdale and Nick Lewis combined service time on the mound to earn the team victory.

“All three of them threw well,” said Kitchens. “Other than the one inning, they did a good job of throwing strikes and keeping them off balance.”

Tisdlae led off the sixth with a double and Tyler Hussey followed with a run-scoring single. Murphy would again come through for Troy with an RBI single. Deven Suddith also picke up an RBI base hit in the inning.

Troy will play Enterprise at 8 P.m. on Friday and Kitchens looks for the game to test his team.

“They have a good team with good pitching, “ Kitchens said. “They play solid defense also. We’ll definitely have to play our best to beat them.