It’s been about a week since the Troy AA 8U Coach-Pitch Rookie team played meaningful competition. They knocked off rival Enterprise to claim the district title and have been preparing for a state championship.

The Troy 8U team will head to Oxford to play in the AA State Tournament beginning on Thursday, July 5.

In their time off, the Troy team, along with coaches Troy Jinright, Will Sanders, Chris Campbell and Aaron Taylor, took the weekend to rest up. They even had some fun along the way when they went to see the Montgomery Biscuits take on and defeat the Birmingham Barons 5-0 on Sunday afternoon at Riverwalk Stadium.

“We took the weekend off and took them to a Biscuits game on Sunday,” said head coach Troy Jinright. “We kicked things off again on the field this week.”

Jinright took his players to the game as a reward for their performance in the district tournament. They were featured on the scoreboard and were able to play catch and run the bases on the field.

“It was fun,” Jinright said. “It was a reward for the kids for working hard. They got to go out on the field and play catch before the game and they got to run bases after the game. They got introduced on the jumbotron (scoreboard) during the game. It was a good experience for them.”

On Monday, it was back to work for Jinright and the Troy Coach-Pitch team.

“We have been trying to clean some things up on defense and making routine plays,” Jinright said. “Those are critical when advancing. Like I told the kids, the farther you go, the harder their games are going to get.”

Troy will head to Oxford this weekend to play some warm-up games at the same complex that the state tournament will be held next Thursday.