Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

The Troup baseball team is heading to the state championship series. The Tigers punched their ticket on Wednesday with a dramatic 7-6 win over Pickens in a winner-take-all game 3.

It was Brady Willis that played the hero as his RBI single gave the Tigers a walk-off win and a 3A state championship series berth.

“This is so special,” Willis said. “To walk it off to send us to the state championship is something I couldn’t even dream of.” 

Willis ended up getting water dumped on his head and thrown onto the bottom of a dog pile just off first base. 

The Tigers got off to a quick start on Wednesday, scoring a run in the bottom of the first courtesy of an RBI single from Willis.

“We got off to a good start, and we just stayed fastball ready all game,” Willis said. 

Troup would add to its early lead with three runs in the second inning. Torreion Delaney hit a single to double the Tiger lead.

“They were throwing fastballs to me all game, and I was able to sit on it and find a hole,” Delaney said. 

Davis Moncus would follow with a single to drive in Troup’s third run of the game. A sacrifice fly from Carson Walker extended the Troup lead out to 4-0. 

The Dragons would not go away quietly and scored four runs in the top of the fourth inning to tie the game and suck the wind out of the home crowd. 

It would not be long before the home crowd had something more to cheer about as Delaney gave the Tigers a 6-5 lead with an RBI single in the bottom of the sixth.

“We’ve all been through ups and downs all season, and you just have to stay even and humble through it all, whether things are going your way or not,” Delaney said. 

“Today, they went my way,” a grinning Delaney added.

Troup quickly got an out in the top of the seventh inning and was two outs away from winning the game. The Dragons had other ideas and scored two runs to take a 6-5 lead.

With their backs against the wall, the Tigers called on an unlikely hero in Trey Dean.

“It means a lot to me that coach G(lisson) trusts me in those moments,” Dean said. “It feels amazing to come through for this team.”

Dean came through with a massive one-run single in the bottom of the seventh to extend the game.

“Trey Dean hadn’t had an at-bat in a month and a half, so we put him in in the biggest moment of the season, and the kid just came through,” Troup coach Tanner Glisson said. “I just had a little intuition that he was gonna get the job done and put the ball in play, and I think God was watching over the Tigers today.”

Dean was a cool 2-for-2 with an RBI and run scored, coming through for the Tigers despite not playing a part in proceedings as of late. 

Troup had a chance to end it in the seventh inning, getting the winning run as far as third base with one out. Despite not scoring and ending the game, the Tigers were far from deterred and kept plugging away in the eighth inning on offense.

“I just told our guys that we had to keep punching,” Glisson said. “I told them that this is a different day, just because we lost a four-run lead yesterday, that didn’t mean we had to give up and cry about it. We just kept battling, and these guys are so resilient.”

A party commenced as Willis rounded first to end the game in the eighth inning. 

The Jungle at Troup High was packed on Wednesday, and the home crowd was making some noise all afternoon. 

“This place was absolutely nuts,” Glisson said. “I couldn’t be more proud of our fan base and this community for rallying around our guys. They gave us a true home field advantage.”

The Tigers used a platoon of pitchers on Wednesday with Chase Mosley starting and getting the lion’s share of work, pitching 4 ⅔ innings. Moncus ended the game on the mound for Troup.

“Those are my guys,” Glisson said. “I will go to war with them any day of the week. Davis didn’t have his best outing yesterday and wanted redemption today.”

Fisher Baltzell and Carson Spears each saw time in relief on the mound as well.

Dean, Monus and Willis led the Troup offense with two hits apiece while Walker and Edwards had one each.

 

WHAT’S NEXT:

Troup will travel to Rome next Tuesday to take on Cherokee Bluff in the GHSA 3A State Championship series. A potential game three would be played on Wednesday. The Tigers have never won a state championship in the history of the baseball program.

“I’m so emotionally spent right now,” an exhausted Glisson said. “This was an emotional game, and it’s hard to fully wrap my head around it right now. We are going to celebrate this one right now and then start to focus on what’s next tomorrow.”