Troy Post 70’s 19U baseball team struggled to find consistency on Tuesday as they split a pair games at Riddle Pace Field.

After falling to Pace High School 11-6, Troy bounced back and defeated Stanhope Elmore 9-0.

“We probably took a step back,” said Post 70 head coach Rush Hixon. “Two high school teams came in here and we probably should have beaten both of them. We slipped up in the first game and got a pretty good beating.”

Post 70 jumped out to an early lead in game one by scoring three runs in the top half of the first inning. Seven batters came to the plate, giving Post 70 an RBI single off the bat of Jackson Byrd; a walk by Chase Hartley that scored John Miller; and sacrifice fly by Hunter Bower that scored Chandler Davis.

The lead didn’t last long, as Pace put four runs on the board on four hits and two walks in the bottom of the first.

Post 70’s pitchers continued to struggle in the first game.

“We weren’t good on the mound again,” Hixon said. “We walked a lot and we left pitches up in the zone. When you have a combination of those two, it leads to runs every time.”

Between starting pitcher John Kelsoe, Byrson Gandy and Parker Warren, Post 70 walked a total of seven batters.

Post 70 rebounded in the second inning, adding two more runs when Hunter Jones singled in Jabronski Williams and Miller drove in Logan Thompson on a sacrifice fly.

Pace went on to tie the game in the second and added four more runs in the third to take a 9-5 lead. Pace added two more runs in the fourth to make it 11-5, before Williams scored the final run in the sixth for Post 70 to bring the final score to 11-6.

Post 70 managed four hits in the game led by Thompson who finished with three.

Game two was a different story for Post 70. They were able to get on base and get the big hit when needed. More importantly, they got a good performance from their pitching staff.

Starting pitcher Graham Wilkes pitched three shutout innings while allowing one hit. Ethan Walker finished the final two innings and didn’t let up a hit.

“It was an A plus for both of them,” Hixon said. “I think we only allowed one base runner. I though they did a really good job and I thought they both really commanded the strike zone.”

For the second straight game Post 70 scored in the first inning when John Miller singled in Gandy to give them a quick 1-0 lead.

Post 70 was able to bunch hits together thanks to aggressive base running.

“I challenged after the first game to come out with a different intensity,” Hixon said. “They tried to do that and that is good to see. It still wasn’t what we wanted, but it was a step in the right direction.”

Troy started to flex their muscles in the second inning with an RBI single by Williams, a double by Gandy and a sacrifice fly from Miller for a 4-0 lead.

Post 70 scored two more runs on a wild pitch and a single by Williams in the third inning and put the game out of reach in the fourth with three runs on two hits and two walks.

Both Miller and Kelso scored on wild pitches, while Hartley scored the ninth run on a single by Taylor.

Post 70 finished with eight hits, led by Williams and Taylor who both had two.

Post 70 is now 2-2 on the year. The team will begin play in the Smartt Baseball Tournament on Friday at 10 a.m. against Birmingham Baseball.