The American Legion Troy Post 70 baseball team began the Independence Day Classic in Columbia, Tenn., with a 10-6 loss to Pontotoc Post 13 Thursday.

After losing just three games since the beginning of the year, Post 70 has now dropped two in a row.

“We came out pretty flat to say the least,” said head coach Rush Hixon. “We knew coming in that they were a really good team and that if we came out flat they would make us pay for it.”

Post 70 had untimely errors at the beginning of the game that came back to bite them later on.

“They are a really good team and you can’t give really good teams free stuff,” Hixon said. “We didn’t play very well and the end result was a loss.”

Pontotoc came in and scored an early run to go up 1-0 before Troy had a chance to grab a bat., Troy responded with a run of their own to even the score.

In the second inning things began to unravel for Post 70. Post 13 scored four runs to retake the lead, this time at 5-1 heading into the bottom half of the second.

Both teams traded runs in the middle innings and Post 70 was able to cut Post 13’s lead down to as low as three runs before they added their 10th run late.

“We showed them some good fight at the end, we just didn’t have enough in the tank to pull it off,” Hixon said.

Jackson Byrd got the start for Post 70 and lasted 3 1/3 innings before Robert Williams came in for the remainder of the game.

Thursday’s game marked only the third time all summer that Post 70 faced a fellow American Legion Club. Hixon said he was going to use this weekend as a measuring stick.

“That team will probably be in the regionals if not the World Series,” Hixon said. “We got a good idea what it’s going to be like and what it’s going to take to win the regionals and go to the World Series.”

With the loss, Post 70 will now have to fight an uphill battle today and Saturday to finish in the top two of their pool to get in the semifinals.

“You don’t want to start out with a loss,” Hixon said. “I think they will respond well to it and maybe we will play with a chip on our shoulder throughout the rest of the tournament and maybe we will be able to play those guys again.”

American Legion Post 70’s next game will be at 3:45 p.m. today when they take on Nashville Baseball Academy.