Drew Vaughan scored from third with two outs in the bottom of the tenth inning on a hard hit grounder by Jeremy McGuire as the Troy Dixie Youth Nationals beat the Eufaula Nationals 6-5 in the sub-district tournament.

The Eufaula Nationals jumped out to a 2-0 lead over Troy Tuesday evening, as Matt Price and Clayton Slade led the game off with hits off Troy starter Dario Rouse, and scored on a double by Sterling Sims. Rouse found his groove, however, and retired the next nine consecutive hitters over three innings.

Troy cut the lead to 2-1 in the bottom of the first inning as Ryan Williamson beat out an infield single, and went to second and third on wild pitches by Eufaula starter Slade. Vaughan and Casey Weston then drew walks, and Williamson scored on a ground-out by David Williams.

Eufaula went ahead 5-1 in the fourth inning as Price and Slade hit consecutive singles, and Sims crushed a three-run homer deep over the left field fence for the 5-1 advantage. Rouse then struck out the next hitter, and did not allow a run in the fifth inning.

Troy tied the game at 5-5 in the bottom of the fifth inning as McGuire singled, and Sam Jones traded places with him on the basepaths with a fielder’s choice. The Troy team then rallied with two outs as Zeb Swindall reached base on a hit-by-pitch, Rouse walked, and Jake Smith drove in two runs with a base hit down the right-field line. Trent Boutwell then drove in a run with an infield hit, and Wesley Hayes smashed a grounder that the shortstop could not handle, to tie the score at 5-5.

Williams came on to pitch for Troy in the top of the sixth inning, and struck out seven consecutive batters over the sixth, seventh and eighth innings. Troy could not muster a baserunner in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings either, as Slade shut down the Nationals in order over the sixth and seventh, and Burns put Troy down in the eighth.

Troy did threaten in the ninth as Hayes drove a single to right field, advanced to second and third on a wild pitch, and almost scored on another wild pitch, but was called out on the bang-bang play.

Eufaula had a runner reach second base in the top of the ninth inning as Bill Potts reached on a fielder’s choice and second on a wild pitch, but Williams struck out the next two batters to end the inning.

Troy ended the marathon in the bottom of the tenth inning as Vaughan walked, and advanced to third on a hard hit single by Williams. McGuire followed with his hard hit infield grounder to score Vaughan, and give Troy the 6-5 win.

Rouse pitched five innings for Troy, allowing five runs on six hits, striking out seven and walking none. Williams pitched five innings also, allowing no runs on no hits, walking two and striking out 12 of the 17 batters faced.

Troy collected nine hits on the evening, with William Teal, Williamson, Weston, Williams, McGuire, Swindall, Smith, Boutwell and Hayes getting one hit each.

Correction: It was reported in the Messenger that Casey Weston struck out three batters against the Eufaula Americans on Monday night, when he actually struck out 14. Our apologies for this error.

Troy National 13

Luverne 3

Troy National put together a nine-run onslaught in the third inning to beat Luverne 13-3 in the Dixie Youth sub-district tournament in Highland Home.

Rickey Goodwin hit a two-run double to give Troy a 2-0 lead in the first.

In the third, Troy received hits from Jonathan Wade, Jace Colley, Goodwin, Ryan Skeen, Aaron Allen, Alex Adams, Logan East and Parker Sanders. Darrell Reynolds hit a two RBI homerun to top the scoring for Troy in the inning.

In the fourth, Wade reached on a double with two outs and Colley singled him home. Clifton Brady doubled and then scored on a sacrifice fly by Allen.

Reynolds went the full five innings for Troy, giving up only three hits and striking out seven batters.