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The Troup baseball team brought out the brooms and swept the season series with rival LaGrange on Thursday. The Tigers rallied to beat the Grangers 6-3 in a thrilling rally at the Branch in Granger Park.

“This gives us a huge leg up in the region and we are going to be very tough to catch,” Troup coach Tanner Glisson said. “To come over here and beat those guys to complete the sweep with them having 13 seniors is huge for us.

“We have been in big games, played in the Elite Eight, so our guys are used to playing in these types of games now even though we are still so young,” he added. 

The Tigers would leave it late as the team went into the seventh inning with no runs to their name. That would change quickly with Troup rising to meet the occasion. Brady Willis singled to drive in a run and get Troup on the board. A Chase Mosley walk with the bases loaded would cut the LaGrange lead to just one run. 

The Grangers would quickly get two outs and push the Tigers to the brink. Jake Perry played the hero as he laced a single that sent the tying run and winning run home. 

“I just pushed all the thoughts out of my mind and just lived in the moment,” Perry said. “I knew when I hit it, it was going to find a hole.

“I don’t even have the words to describe this feeling right now,” he added.  

A wild pitch would allow two more Troup runs to score in the inning and give the team some breathing room.

Perry was one of those insurance runs, and he was given a warm greeting in the dugout from his teammates and coaches.

“I couldn’t even hear what anybody was saying; they were just yelling and patting me on the head,” Perry said, smirking.

The game was a true pitcher’s duel between LaGrange’s Kayden Sutton and Troup’s Davis Moncus for the majority of the contest. Sutton got the better of his Tiger counterpart. The senior dominated in his five innings of work, allowing just six hits on two strikeouts. 

Moncus also excelled, allowing just three hits and two earned runs on four strikeouts. 

The game would stay in a scoreless deadlock until the bottom of the fifth inning. Senior Sinjon Lash delivered the breakthrough RBI on a single.

One batter later, Jackson Bozeman would hit a one-run single to double the LaGrange lead.

The Grangers were not done there, adding an insurance run in the sixth inning courtesy of a Mason Calhoun sacrifice fly. 

The Tigers dug in and found a way back into the game.

“We just took the approach of one at bat at a time,” Glisson said. “These are the moments we have been waiting for.”

The Tigers had their chances to take an initial lead, including having a batter tagged out heading home to end the top of the fifth inning. The Grangers made Troup pay for those missed chances. 

Cason Spears pitched the final two innings for Troup and earned the save.

Willis, Fisher Baltzell and Garrison Edwards all had two hits apiece, while Carson Walker, Ethan Goff and Mosley finished with one each. 

Rob Skinner, Cooper Stephens, Bozeman and Lash all had a hit apiece for LaGrange. 

Troup improved to 14-6 overall and 9-1 in region play. The Tigers have won eight games in a row and will look to keep it going at Columbus on Monday for a non-region matchup.

“We’re playing defense, we are throwing strikes and we are hitting the ball into the gaps and when we are doing that consistently, we are going to be a very hard team to beat,” Glisson said. 

LaGrange fell to 13-8 overall and 7-3 in region play. The Grangers will be right back at it at The Branch on Friday against Mary Persons.