American Legion Post 70 finished day one of the American Legion Alabama State Tournament in Birmingham with a 1-1 record.

Troy defeated Bessemer Post 149 17-7 before falling Florence Post 11 5-2.

The 1-1 and record was good enough to advance to the single elimination tournament, which begins this morning.

“We came out hot early,” said Post 70 head coach Rush Hixon. “All in all we hit the ball really well. We got a good enough pitching performance to get it done. We came out with good intensity and I was pleased.”

Post 70 was to score a run in every inning, and the offense combined with the strong pitching performance by John Kelso.

John Miller led Post 70 in hitting in game by one by going 5-6 against Bessemer.

In game two, Post 70 didn’t seem to come out with the same intensity, Hixon said. The only two runs came in the opening inning. From there Florence pitching was too much to handle.

“We didn’t do a good job at compiling a lot of hits,” Hixon said. “We swung at a lot of balls. Their pitcher was wild during the first couple of innings, and we didn’t have a lot of plate discipline.”

A four-run third inning gave Florence the edge.

“We made a few errors in that inning,” Hixon said. “We left a few balls up and they got some hits. After that inning we put up zeros the rest of the game.”

With the 1-1 record Post 70 will advance to the single elimination style tournament on Saturday. Times and opponents are still to be determined.

“I told them to flush today out,” Hixon said. “There is nothing we can do about it now. I told them not to hang their heads about the loss. We need to learn from it and come back (today). (Today) is when everything starts.”