By Kevin Eckleberry

kevin.eckleberry@lagrangenews.com

DOUGLASVILLE – The Troup Tigers jumped into their Region 5-AAAA schedule with a dramatic 7-6 victory over Chapel Hill on Wednesday.

The game was originally going to be played on Tuesday, but it was pushed back a day because of weather concerns.

Troup scored a run in the top of the seventh to pull even and force extra innings, and it scored the go-ahead run in the eighth inning.

“I was proud of them for fighting, and scrapping, and finding a way,” Troup head coach Craig Garner said.

It was the first of three games in three days for the Tigers, and Garner adjusted the pitching accordingly.

Troup will host Cedartown today, and it will visit LaGrange on Friday.

That will be the first region game for Cedartown and LaGrange, so both of those teams will have all of their pitchers available.

“We worked our pitching about as well as it could be worked, rolling the dice like we did,” Garner said. “We kind of changed plans on the way up here, because of the way the region is shaking out.”

A key to Wednesday’s win was the performance of the four men who pitched in relief.

Brantly Robinson started and pitched the first three innings, and Cade Garner, Jarred Helton, Ryan Bliss and Colby Williams combined for five shutout innings.

Garner, Helton and Bliss each pitched one inning, and Williams threw the final two innings to get the win.

Trent Bailey led the offensive effort with two hits and a walk, and he drove in four runs.

Cooper Doughman had two hits with an RBI, and Kenly Bridwell had a hit and an RBI.

Camren Russell, Jarred Helton, Williams and Bliss each had one hit.

After Troup scored two runs in the top of the first inning, Chapel Hill answered with four runs in the bottom of the inning to take the lead.

Troup tied it with single runs in the third and fourth innings, and Chapel Hill reclaimed the lead with two runs in the bottom of the fourth.

After scoring a run in the top of the fifth to cut Chapel Hill’s lead to one, Troup tied it with a run in the seventh inning.

Troup was down to its final out in the seventh inning when it manufactured a run.

Doughman reached on a single, and Joseph Calhoun came in to score on a throwing error.

In the eighth inning, Russell got things started with a base hit, and he scored the go-ahead run when Williams reached on an error.