Troy Ozone Rookies finish runner-up at state
Published 7:31 pm Tuesday, July 9, 2019
The Troy Ozone Rookie team ended their run in the Ozone State Tournament on Tuesday morning when they fell to the Dothan Americans 5-4 in walk-off fashion.
Troy scored a run in the top of the final inning to pull ahead of Dothan 4-3, but Dothan rallied with two runs in the bottom of the inning to knock Troy out of the tournament.
Jaxon Wade got the start for Troy in the game. Wade pitched four innings and gave up three unearned runs on three hits and two walks. He struck out five batters. Chase Vaznaian also pitched in the game.
Ford Hussey drove in the first run of the game on a groundout to shortstop. Dothan answered with two runs in the bottom of the first to capture their first lead.
Both teams were scoreless in both the second and third inning. Troy’s offense got back to work when they scored two runs in the top of the fourth inning.
Joshua James Gardiner ripped a single to left that allowed Luke Sikes to score. One batter Dalton Jordan singled to left to score Gardiner, giving Troy their second lead of the game at 3-2.
After Dothan evened the score with a run in the fifth, Troy pushed across what they hoped was the winning run in the sixth when Sikes singled on a pop fly to center field.
Dothan had their first two runners of the sixth inning reach on a single and an error. After a one-out single put runners on second and third, Dothan ripped a doubled to left to end the game.
Troy finished with seven hits. Gardiner led the team with two hits, one RBI and one run scored. Slade Russell, Vaznaian, Sikes, Jordan and Wes Templin all had one hit.