After a being rained out of its first round game against Daphne in the state tournament Friday night, the Troy Dixie Boys took the field Saturday night for a chance to continue its winning ways.

However, for the first time this summer, that would not be the case as Daphne got the best of the Troy team, winning 3-2.

“We played a good team, the best we have seen in tournament play,” head coach Sam Kitchens said late Saturday night.

“They out hit us and we left too many men on base. We made a lot of great plays though. We had it where we wanted it, but we just let it slip away.”

Blake Craft started on the mound for Troy, with John Michael Stephens and John Johnson coming in in relief.

Two of the Daphne runs were unearned thanks to Troy errors, according to Kitchens.

“All three guys pitched well enough for us to win,” the coach said. “We had a heck of a defensive effort – we did everything we could to come away with a win except get hits and score runs.”

Troy will have to shake off the loss quickly as the team will be back in action Sunday morning at 11 a.m. and if it wins then, it will play again at 2 p.m. that afternoon.

“There are a couple of ways that this team can go,” Kitchens said.

“They can respond to the loss by turning things around and playing their best or they could just shut it down.

“I have seen teams that have done both so it’s tough to say right now. But I think this is the kind of team that is going to respond well – they are not going to go down without fight,” he added.

Offensively, Troy managed just four hits while striking out 12 times.

“We had a good effort (Saturday night),” Kitchens said. “The kids played hard, but we just ran into a really good team. Now, we have to go back to work and take care of business.”