Troup County one win from championship
Published 9:57 pm Sunday, June 17, 2018
By KEVIN ECKLEBERRY
Daily News
MANCHESTER – They’re one win from a championship.
The Troup County all-stars swept to a pair of victories on Saturday in the Dixie Youth Baseball 7-8-year-old District 1 tournament in Manchester.
With those wins, Troup improved to 3-0 in the tournament, and it will play for the district title today at 7:30 p.m.
It’s been an impressive run so far.
After opening with a 17-1 victory over Schley County on Friday, Troup County was back on the field on Saturday morning, and it thumped Lamar County 13-3.
With a trip to the championship game on the line, Troup County blanked Taylor County 10-0.
Troup County is getting it done with a balanced offense, as well as a lock-down defense that has held the three opponents to a combined four runs.
All of the players are members of a travel team, and they played a handful of tournaments during the fall.
While that was a valuable experience, head coach Nick Burns wanted the players to be able to enjoy all-star baseball, just as he did.
“I remember hitting my first home run off of Tanner Glisson against Manchester,” Burns said. “You remember your name being called out on the intercom, things like that. It’s a great experience.”
There was some suspense in Saturday’s first game, with Lamar County surging to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning, but Troup answered with six runs in the bottom of the inning to take control.
Troup County added five more runs in the third inning, and the game ended after four innings because of the run rule.
Troup County kept the good times rolling in its next game against Taylor County, scoring four runs in the second inning and five more in the fifth in a game that was shortened to four innings.
In both games, every member of the lineup contributed something.
In the Taylor County game, Wyatt Martin had had two hits and an RBI, and Brody Buc Cofield had a pair of hits.
Ben Schory had a hit and two RBIs, and Riley Cockrell, Laken Tippy, Bear Napier, and Hayden Browning each had a hit and an RBI.
Sam Burns, Grant Chaffin and Davis Keese each had a hit, and Trace Bailey and Cason McGill had one RBI apiece.
It was the same story in the Lamar County game, with all 12 players getting it done at the plate as they combined for 15 hits.
Trace Bailey had three hits and two RBIs, and Grant Chaffin had two hits and three RBIs.
Cason McGill and Wyatt Martin each had two hits and two RBIs, and Riley Cockrell and Brody Buc Cofield had two hits apiece.
Sam Burns and Davis Keese each had a hit, and Ben Schory and Hayden Browning each drove in a run.
TEAM MEMBERS: Trace Bailey, Sam Burns, Grant Chaffin, Bear Napier, Benjamin Schory, Riley Cockrell, Laken Tippy, Cason McGill, Davis Keese, Wyatt Martin, Brody Buc Cofield and Hayden Browning.
