Troup swinging away

Published 10:27 am Wednesday, August 7, 2019

By KEVIN ECKLEBERRY

Daily News

They’ve got the bats working.

After going scoreless in their season opener against LaGrange, the Troup Lady Tigers have plated 34 runs in their past two games.

Following a wild 19-16 win over Callaway on Saturday, Troup improved to 2-1 with Tuesday’s 15-10 victory over visiting Woodward Academy.

Troup has put in plenty of time in the batting cages, and the effort is paying dividends.

“That has something we have worked on in practice,” Troup head coach Kayla Yeargin said. “We get multiple cages going with different counts, and making sure that you’re taking pitches early in the count. We still have a lot to work on, but it’s promising this early.”

Troup will open its Region 5-AAAA schedule on Thursday against Chapel Hill, which won the region title a year ago.

“I’m glad we have three games under our belt going into Chapel Hill and region play,” Yeargin said.

Troup banged out 17 hits in Monday’s game, and six of those hits went for extra bases.

Leadoff hitter Avery Pearson, who also pitched a complete game, had four hits and four runs scored, and she had a double and a triple.

The number two hitter in the lineup, Lainey Braswell, had three hits with a triple and a double, and she drove in four runs and had two runs scored.

Hadleigh Livingston and Casey Sani each had two hits and an RBI, and Morgan Watkins had a double and two RBIs.

Skye Loftin had an RBI double, and Olivia McInvale and Maggie McDonald each had a hit.

There were plenty of fireworks early, with the teams combining for seven runs in the first three innings.

After Woodward scored three runs in the top of the first, Troup answered with five runs in the bottom of the inning.

Watkins knocked in two runs with a double, Braswell and Loftin both had RBI doubles, and McInvale contributed an RBI single.

Back came Woodward Academy with three runs in the top of the second, and Troup answered with two runs in the bottom of the inning.

Pearson doubled and scored on a wild pitch, and Braswell also came home on a wild pitch after reaching on a bunt single.

Woodward Academy scored a single run in the top of the third to tie it at 7-7, and Troup surged ahead with a run in the fourth.

After falling behind by a run, Troup reclaimed the lead, this time for good, with five runs in the bottom of the fifth inning.

Livingston had an RBI single during the five-run outburst, and Pearson knocked in another run with a bunt.

Troup pushed two more runs across in the sixth inning, with Braswell doing the damage with a two-run triple.