The Troy AAA Rookie team was two wins shy of the District 9 championship title, but with a second place finish the team secured a spot in the state tournament.

After not playing up to par defensively in their final game against Enterprise two weeks ago, the focus is getting back to the basics.

“That has been a real emphasis,” said head coach Adam Brookins said. “We started practice again on Thursday, and we went back to the basics and worked on defensive drills. One of our main goals is to get better on defense.”

Scoring runs wasn’t a problem for the Rookies in district. Overall they combined to score 39 runs. It was the eight errors they had against the Enterprise Americans that they don’t want to repeat come July 8.

“We hit the ball pretty decent during the district tournament,” Brookins said. “In the end it was our defense that just let us down. I don’t think we were bad defensively, it was just one game. Looking back I just think we could have spent more time working on our defense.”

Troy held opposing offenses to 20 runs, 15 of which came in their final game, and they had two shutouts. One of the shutouts came way of a combined no hitter by Blake Lowery and Hayden Adamson against the Enterprise Nationals.

The pitching depth will be an advantage heading into the state tournament, especially in a league that is seeing live pitching for the first time.

“We have really good pitching, and we have depth in pitching.” Brookins said. “I don’t think we will run into a pitching problem when it comes to how many innings they have. We have plenty of pitching.”

State tournament will bring along with it tougher competition for the Rookies. “I think they know what they are up against,” Brookins said. “If they can do what we ask them in practice and carry it over to the game I think we will be alright. They understand how good they are. They are good ball players … I have been really impressed with their effort at practice.”

The AAA Rookies will begin their state tournament in Oxford on July 8.