The Troy Angels put up a valiant effort in its first two games of the District Tournament in Greenville. Unfortunately for coach Terry Garrett and the Angels a pair of losses ended drew their seasons to a close.

The Angels fell to Taylor-Rehobeth 16-12 in six innings and to Luverne 6-4, which put them out of the District Tournament and ended their season.

After a delay set game times back Friday night, The Angels got their tournament going against Taylor-Rehobeth. After a tough first two innings that saw the Angels walk 11 batters and fall behind 12-2, the Angles battled back and tied the game in the fourth inning, when Madison Campbell hit a bases clearing triple with the bases loaded.

Aerial Frazier had a bases loaded single driving in a run, Kaylee Navarra had two run base hit, and Rushing had an RBI hit in the inning to tie the game for the Angels.

“That was our major inning,” Garrett said. “We only had one hit, prior to that inning.”

The comeback fell short however, a defensive mistake by the outfield plated a few runs for Rehobeth leading to the win.

“They battled very hard,” Garrett said. “They got down big early because of the walks. They had very good, pitching. Our team hit the ball very well and we battled back to tie the game. The game went into extra innings, and a couple errors cost us some runs.”

In a must-win game for both the Angels and Luverne, both teams put their ace pitcher on the mound. In the end Luverne proved to be the better team, beating the Angels 6-4 and knocking Troy out of the tournament.

“We all knew they were going to have their ace pitcher on the mound,” Garrett said. “We had seen her before, and we knew she throws the ball really hard. We had prepared to see harder pitching, and we did better. We just gave up the six runs in the game.”

The Angles starting pitcher Ally Rushing, who came in the game during the second inning of game one on Friday, started and completed the game on Saturday.

“Pitching was better, and we only had four to five walks in the game,” Garrett said. “She pitched every inning in the tournament other than the first inning Friday. She pitched very well. She had six strikeouts for us in that Luverne game.”

In the two games the Angels were able to put up a combined 20 runs. Campbell and Rayleigh Carter led the Angels offense during the District Tournament as well as the summer as a whole.

The two losses brought the season to and end for the Angels. According to Garrett this season has brought his team together and he is very happy with how the tournament season shaped up.

“It has been an absolute blast for not only me but for my coaching staff as well,” Garrett said. “It has been a great family atmosphere for all of us.”

The summer gave the players the opportunity to make new relationships with players and coaches they had not ever played with before.

“A lot of these girls haven’t ever played ball together before. They made a lot of new friends,” Garrett said. “Dixie Softball is about getting out making new friends, and having fun. I think this group of girls has done that, I know I have.”