Troy Post 70 kicked off the Independence Day Classic with a bang on Friday evening when they defeated Terre Haute Post 346 9-5 in Columbia Tennessee.

“We came out sluggish a little bit and fell behind,” said head coach Rush Hixon. “We were able fight a little bit and showed a little resiliancy. We scratched some runs across and pulled it out.”

Parker Warren pitched all six innings on Friday night and allowed five runs, only two of which were earned on three hits and four walks.

“Early on he wasn’t in the zone very well,” Hixon said. “He was throwing a lot of balls. Some of that came after errors. Overall I thoughmhe settled in. It wasn’t his best day, but he was able to win on a day he didn’t have his best stuff. That speaks a lot about his character.”

At the plate, Post 70 racked up 11 hits led by D.J. Law and Jackson who had three hits. John Miller also had a good night at the plate. He finished the evening going 2-4 with an RBI and three runs scored.

“Overall I was pleased with the offensive performance,” Hixon said. “Early in the game, we weren’t very good with the bats. We struggled through the first three innings. We found a little rythm on the offensive side, starting sitting on a pitch and in time we started to find some barrerls. Our guys had some key hits, we executed a few bunts, which led to runs also. They kicked the ball around too, had some errors to help us out. We put pressure on them by putting the ball in play and tried to run it out. Offensively we came on strong late and I was pleased with our fight.”

Post 70 fell behind early on Friday night when they surrendered two runs in the opening inning. Post 70 committed two errors in the inning. There was also a walk and a hit batter.

After a scoreless second inning, Post 70 cut the lead in half at 2-1 when Law doubled to left scoring Miller from second.

Post 346 picked up their second two-run inning in the bottom of the third and stretched their lead to 4-1.

Post 70 had their biggest inning of the game in the top of the fourth when they tallied six runs on four hits, including a triple by Gage Herring to drive in Carson Tucker. Herring came around to score on an error off the bat of Logan Thompson, who later came around to score on a single by Miller. Post 70 took the lead on a single by Law driving in Miller from second. Casey Henderson grounded into a fielder’s choice to score Jackson Tate. Henderson closed out the scoring when he scored on an error.

Post 346 got a gift of their own in the fourth when they had a hit batter with the bases loaded bringing the score to 7-5.

Post 70 picked up a pair of insurance runs in the top of the sixth inning when Law singled to right to score both Miller and Tate to increase their lead out to 9-5.

Post 70 will continue play in Tennessee on Saturday against Florence Post 11 beginning at 10 a.m.