District champs: Troy Ozone Rookies advance to State Tournament after defeating Enterprise
Published 3:00 am Tuesday, June 21, 2016
The Troy Ozone Rookies battled back twice in their game against Enterprise on Monday evening and held on to win 7-6 to secure the District 9 Tournament Championship.
Brady Huner took the ball as Troy’s starter. He pitched the game’s first three innings and allowed five runs on five hits and struck out five batters.
Enterprise jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning, but Troy was able to answer in the bottom half when they got back-to-back homeruns from Kase Chirico and Payne Jefcoat.
“That was big because we talk to the boys about answering,” Troy head coach Chris Huner said. “That is something I learned from Coach Irons at Charles Henderson. Every time someone scores, you have to answer. After the first inning those two hits were clutch and it was a new ball game.”
Enterprise took their second lead of the game when they scored a run in both the second and third innings to regain the lead at 5-3 heading into the fourth inning.
Troy battled back to even the score in the fourth inning.
Huner scored the first run of the inning on a passed ball by the Enterprise catcher. Following a walk by JD Wilson, K.C. Bradford laid down a squeeze bunt that scored Bryce Belts and advanced Barron to third base.
With the game tied at five heading into the bottom of the fifth inning, Troy had their sites on taking the lead. Jeff Warrick got a one-out single and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt from Connor Thrash. Mario Davenport singled, scoring Warrick. Troy added an insurance run when Jefcoat doubled in Davenport to give Troy a 7-5 lead.
Enterprise got their lead off batter on base with a single and he came around to score on a groundout. Enterprise was able to get the tying run on base with a walk but Wilson forced a ground ball to Thrash at third base to seal the win.
The Ozone Rookies will now advance to the state tournament in Oxford beginning on July 7.
“As a team we are going to take a couple days off and practice later in the week,” Huner said. “We will get back to practicing hard next week, but we are going to enjoy this one for a day or two.”