Rain put a damper on day one of the Independence Day Classic on Thursday in Columbia Tennessee. Troy Post 70 was slated to play Pulaski at 7:30, but poor weather postponed all of day one’s action until Friday.

“The rain caught us on the way up here,” said coach Rush Hixon. “We were riding through the rain.”

The Independence Day Classic is Post 70’s second straight weekend tournament. They participated in the Palmetto Invitational last week in Sumter, South Carolina.

“It’s always a great tournament to come to,” Hixon said. “We have been coming to this tournament ever since Post 70 got going again. It’s a tournament full of other legion teams from around southeast. It’s always competitive and it’s one that we look forward to going to every year.”

Post 70 normally uses this tournament and the one in Sumter to get an idea of how their team may look come time for the postseason. Many of the teams they see in these tournaments, they will see in both the regionals or World Series.

“That’s one of the good things about stretching this road trip out,” Hixon said. “You are playing teams outside Alabama. You get to see where you line up against some of the better teams in the southeast.”

Post 70 picked up a pair of wins in last week’s tournament, but overall, they are looking to be more consistent. They have an overall record of 8-5, but Hixon sees better things in the future.

“I think we got better last weekend,” Hixon said. “We played a really good schedule in South Carolina. Moving forward, we want to continue to get better and I think we did last weekend. We will get another good chance to play good competition this weekend. You can only hope that we can take steps forward. We look forward to getting better as the week goes along.”
Pitching takes center stage in these tournaments. With Troy scheduled to play multiple games in just a few days, Hixon looks to get a better idea of his pitching staff.

“We have a lot of pitchers,” Hixon said. “We are probably not as dominant on the mound as we have been in the past summers. We have a lot of guys that go out there and throw strikes. It’s a recipe for winning if you can throw strikes.”

Post 70 scored runs in spurts last weekend. Overall, Hixon is still looking for consistency.

“It’s kind of hit or miss,” Hixon said. “This team is not as powerful as some teams in the past. We have to manufacture runs differently than we have. It’s something we have to buy into and start doing. We have definitely shown the capability of scoring a large number of runs. I’m looking forward to seeing if we can keep that going this weekend.”

The tournament is slated to run through Sunday, but with Thursday’s rain, the schedule may be altered.