BRADENTON, Fla. – The Troup Tigers were unable to play a baseball game on Tuesday, so they found another way to satisfy their competitive urges.

Troup was supposed to play its opening game in the IMG National Classic on Tuesday in Bradenton, Fla., but the game was postponed because of rain.

So instead of playing baseball, the Troup players and coaches headed to a local bowling alley and held a tournament, and it was assistant coach Carson Dempsey taking top honors.

The weather is supposed to be nice in Bradenton today, so Troup will hopefully be able to finally play some baseball.

Troup was scheduled to play Windermere Prep, Fla. on Tuesday, but Mother Nature had other plans.

“We went over and had practice this morning,” Troup head coach Craig Garner said Tuesday night. “And afterwards, we had lunch, and we were ready to head back over to the field and start playing, and then it just got worse, and worse and worse. Once they called them off, we went and had a bowling tournament.”

Troup will play two games today.

It will play Windermere Prep at 10 a.m., and it will play again at 1 p.m. or 4 p.m.

If the weather cooperates, Troup will play single games on Thursday and Friday.

Troup brings a 10-3 record into the game, and it is ranked third in Class AAAA in Georgia.

Windermere Prep has struggled to an 8-11 record, but it features one of the country’s top players in senior pitcher Austin Bergner, a 6-foot-4 flame-thrower who’s fastball tops out in the high 90s.

A year ago, Bergner went 6-1 with an 0.40 earned run average, and he struck out 85 batters in in 52.2 innings.

The other teams in the tournament are Bishop McLaughlin (Fla.), Harvard-Westlake (Calif.), IMG Academy (Fla.), Lexington Catholic (Ky.), Regis Jesuit (Colo.), Saint Edward (Ohio), St. John’s College High School (Md.) and TC Roberson (N.C.).

Reach Kevin Eckleberry at (706) 884-7311 or on Twitter @lagrangesports