Ozone Rookies to face Enterprise in deciding game
Published 3:00 am Wednesday, July 15, 2015
The Ozone Rookies an Enterprise have gotten very familiar with one another over last couple months, after Enterprise beat Troy in a best-two-out-of-three series in the District Tournament the two are once again facing off in another two-out-of-three series this time to decide the State Champion.
The first two games of the series began Tuesday with Enterprise winning game one 5-2 and Troy evening up the series with a 9-5 win.
The deciding game three for the state championship will be start at 10:00 this morning in Oxford.
“We were really just hoping for the best today,” said head coach Chris Huner. “We wanted to win both and head back to Troy, but we split so we get to stay one more night.”
Enterprise got the series started with a game-one victory over the Ozone Rookies Tuesday afternoon, in a game where Troy out hit Enterprise.
“It was a well-played game. We walked a couple batters in that first game and those walks always seem to come around to score,” Huner said. “Three out of their five runs got on base by walks.”
Adrian Caldwell got the start for Troy and he pitched three innings allowing just two runs on just one hit.
Those runs came in the first inning when Enterprise moved runners around the bases on a passed ball and a wild pitch. An Enterprise double also drove in a run.
Troy got one run back in the top of the second when Jeff Warrick and KenCorious Boykin hit back-to-back doubles for Troy.
In the fourth inning Troy tied the game at two when Quay Rodgers drove in Noah Prestwood who reached base on a single, with a sacrifice fly.
The game didn’t stay tied for long, Enterprise came up in the bottom of the inning and scored three runs on three hits, one of which a triple.
Prestwood, Rodgers, Skylar Kidd, Warrick, Boykin, Kase Chirico and Matt Dubose all had one hit for Troy.
Troy battled back in game two and evened the series at two.
Once again Troy surrendered two runs in the first inning followed by three more runs in the second to jump out to a 5-0 lead
Troy came back in the bottom of the second when Caldwell. And Warrick both got on base after being hit by a pitch. Boykin reached base due to an error that scored Caldwell for Troy’s first run. After a double by Brady Barron, and a single by Dubose scored three more runs, Troy had cut their deficit to just one run.
Troy tacked on four more runs in the third to take the lead, a lead they never relinquished.
Prestwood, Huner, Rodgers and Kidd all reached base to start the inning. All four runners came around and scored for the Rookies in the third. The double by Rodgers drove in Prestwood, the big hit of the inning came when Kidd singled driving in both Huner and Rodgers.
Troy scored their final run of the game in the fifth inning when Kidd once again singled driving in Prestwood.
Rodgers and Kidd both led Troy in hit with two a piece.
“They were a lot more relaxed in the second game,” Huner said. “We told them to play one inning at a time and one batter at a time. I was proud of them for responding like they did.”