Still breathing: Troy Darlings come back from five runs down to defeat Opp for a berth in district championship
Published 3:00 am Thursday, June 23, 2016
![Photo/mike hensley The Troy Darlings found themselves down by five runs early in Wednesday’s game against Opp. After a back-and-forth game, Troy was able to hold to a 21-18 win to advance to the district championship this evening.](https://www.troymessenger.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2016/06/DSC_5454web-300x169.jpg)
Photo/mike hensley
The Troy Darlings found themselves down by five runs early in Wednesday’s game against Opp. After a back-and-forth game, Troy was able to hold to a 21-18 win to advance to the district championship this evening.
Addison Armstrong had a two-run single in the fifth inning as the Troy Darlings earned a 21-18 come from behind win over Opp on Wednesday.
Troy found them down by as many as five runs Wednesday, but the offense kept hitting.
“I am super proud of our girls,” said Troy head coach Neil Armstrong. “We fell way behind early. It shows a lot of character from our girls to stay together and fight back in every inning.”
Troy took the early lead in the contest when they sent eight batters to the plate and scored three runs.
In the bottom of the first, Opp reached their 10-batter limit and cruised to an 8-3 lead.
Troy sent 10 batters to the plate and took a 9-8 lead in the second.
“I told them not to lose faith,” Armstrong said. “I told them ‘it’s going to be our turn to hit and we are going to have 10 batters come to the plate.’ They believed me and we did it that next inning. We went ahead 9-8. It would have been really easy to hold our heads, but we didn’t do that.”
In the second inning the rollercoaster continued. Opp sent 10 batters to the plate again and scored seven more runs to give them their second five-run lead of the game.
The message from Armstrong was to keep going. Troy sent nine more batters to the plate and got themselves right back into the ball game at 14-11.
“My girls played together and they never got down on another,” Armstrong said. “They kept picking each other up and I am just so proud of them.”
Troy tied the game at 15 in the bottom of the fourth inning when Cheyenne Sneed grounded out to score Lakayla Sellers.
The pivotal point of the game came in the bottom of the fourth when Troy only allowed two Opp runs. With Troy trailing by two runs in the final innings the offense went to work.
Aderian Greenwood, Hailey Owens and Indi Carter all reached base safely to begin the inning. Alyssa Barron drove in Greenwood on a groundout.
With two outs in the inning and Troy trailing by one, Armstrong stepped to the plate and laced the ball to the outfield, scoring two runs. In all they scored six runs and took a 21-17 lead into the bottom of the final inning.
Opp scraped across one run, but Troy’s defense held. Clara Chandler made one of the three final outs when she threw a laser from third over to first to get the Opp runner.
“To get an out on a ground ball to third base in this league is rare,” Armstrong said. “She chucked it over to first and got a very important out in the fifth inning. She made and incredible play.”
With the win Troy will advance to play in the championship game later against either Enterprise or Geneva at 6 p.m. today.