Coming up short
Published 9:53 pm Thursday, July 1, 2010
Troy American’s hot streak finally came to an end Thursday night in the Coach Pitch District championship game.
The Americans had won four in a row coming into the final game, but fell 15-3 to the undefeated Enterprise Nationals.
After the game, head coach Brett Stallworth said his players were not at fault for the loss, but that Enterprise played a great game.
“They really did everything right,” Stallworth said. “They played an outstanding game. When we hit the ball, they made a play on it.”
Enterprise took a 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning, and never looked back from there.
Troy had a chance to tie it in the bottom of the first after Jackson Senn drove home a run to make it 3-1.
The Americans had runners on second and third with one out, but Noah Prestwood lined out to the shortstop, and Walker Stallworth grounded back to the pitcher to end the inning.
Enterprise then scored five runs in the top of the second to take an 8-1 lead. The game was never in question after that.
Still, Stallworth said the Americans could have had more success on a different day.
“They’re one of the better teams we’ve seen, but I still feel like on any other night, we could have given them a run for their money,” Stallworth said.
Darryl Lee scored a run in the third and drove home a run in the fifth to provide Troy with its final two runs.
Enterprise would go on to score a run in the third, two runs in the fifth and four runs in the sixth to end the game early.
Lee led Troy, going 1-3 with an RBI and a run scored. Senn was 1-2 with an RBI, Jeffery Knotts was 1-2 with a run scored and Ryan Ledford was 1-3 with a run scored.
With the tournament now at an end, the season has officially ended for the Troy Americans.
Stallworth said the time together as a team had been a positive one.
“I couldn’t be prouder of the way they played in this tournament,” Stallworth said. “They’ve improved 100-fold in the three weeks we’ve been together. They came out here and made plays 6-year-olds never make.