By Kevin Eckleberry

kevin.eckleberry@lagrangenews.com

CARROLLTON –The Troup Tigers are one step closer to a region title.

Troup, which was coming off Tuesday’s critical home win over LaGrange, went on the road and beat Central-Carroll 9-3 on Friday in a Region 5-AAAA game.

The Tigers improved to 8-2 in the region, and they’ve got a one-game lead over LaGrange and Cartersville.

Troup hosts Cartersville on Tuesday before closing its region schedule with Thursday’s game at Sandy Creek.

In Friday’s game, Jarred Helton got the start for Troup, and he pitched 5 2/3 innings to get the win, and Ryan Bliss threw 1 1/3 shutout innings to finish it.

Bliss also got it done at the plate with three hits including a triple, and Helton had two hits.

Kenly Bridwell, Cooper Doughman, Trent Bailey, Colby Williams and Cade Garner each had one hit for Troup. It was the first varsity hit for Garner.

Bailey, Williams and Ken Truitt each had an RBI for Troup.

“We played pretty well,” Troup coach Craig Garner said. “We played really good defense. We turned three double plays that got us out of some possible jams.”