Sports Editor

July 10, 2000 10 PM

Troy 7 Luverne 6

In the closest contest that Troy had

in the Dixie Minor Tournament, the Nationals edged Luverne, 7-6 on Thursday night to move into the championship game unbeaten at 4-0.

Troy scored two runs on their final at-bat in the bottom of the sixth inning to escape with the

win as Jonathan Wade led of the batting order in the sixth with a double and Steve Kyle had a single to follow.

Then Casey Weston drove in the tying and the winning run with a two RBI double to finish off Luverne.

Luverne was up 6-2 in the bottom of the fifth, but Troy was able to tack on three runs to close out the inning.

David Williams reached home plate on a single by Dustin Smith. Smith came home on a RBI double by Justin Henderson, who in turn was brought home on a single by Jake Smith. The score was now 6-5 in favor of Luverne, who were desperately in need of some runs to halt the Troy rally.

Troy head coach Ronald Wade decided to put Weston on the mound for the final two innings, which proved to be the right choice as the 10-year old promptly came in and struck five of the six batters he faced, including three straight in the sixth.

Luverne scored all six of their runs in the first three innings, but were held scoreless by the Troy defense in the final three.

Weston was 3/3, including the winning two run double in the sixth. Wade was 2/3 for Troy with a single and double

Troy had eight hits on the game with six of that total coming in the fifth and sixth innings.

Greenville 10 Troy 5

Troy missed out on a chance to capture the sub-district title on Friday night, as Greenville defeated the National team 10-5.

Troy opened the game with two runs on a two RBI single by David Williams. Greenville came back with one run in the bottom of the first and three runs in the third inning to claim the lead.

The National team was held scoreless the second through the fourth innings as Greenville scored four runs in the bottom of the fourth to take a commanding 8-2 lead.

"We weren’t hitting the ball well and our pitching wasn’t there," said head coach Ronald Wade about the game. "We just were not the same team that we had been up until the second game with Greenville."

The win by Greenville set up a Saturday night showdown with Troy for the sub-district championship.

Troy 10 Greenville 0

In the words of head coach Ronald Wade, the Troy Dixie Minor National team "took care of business" on Saturday night, defeating Greenville 10-0 to claim the title and will now head back to Troy for districts, starting on July 12.

Wade said that his team is really looking forward to coming back home and playing on familiar territory.

"I know they’re tired of the bus rides," he said, laughing. "It’s fun, but after awhile all of that riding gets old."

Casey Weston pitched all four innings for Troy, allowing no runs and striking out six. The 10-year-old has come up big in the past few games for the team and Wade said probably Weston’s biggest asset to the National team was his pitching.

"He’s just a good ball player," said Wade.

Weston opened the scoring for Troy with an RBI single into right field that brought Steve Kyle home from first base.

Brandon Bundy had a two RBI double in the second inning and Adam Senn had an RBI single to give Troy a 4-0 lead.

Weston had another RBI single in the third as did teammate Dustin Smith. William Teal added an RBI single in the fourth, as did Weston.

Troy had 16 hits on the night.

Troy will face Enterprise on Wednesday at the Sportsplex in the opening round of the district tournament.