They didn’t lose, but disappointment could be seen on each member of Troy Post 70’s face.

Troy, sponsored by American Legion Post 70 in Troy, tied the game with a pair of runs in the sixth inning, but left the winning run standing 90 feet away at third base in both the seventh and eighth innings, en route to a 4-4 tie with Gadsden Titans.

“It is not what we wanted for sure,” Post 70 coach Austin Golden said. “We just aren’t hitting the ball well right now. I don’t know if it the change to the wooden bats or what, but we have to a better job. When the bats aren’t hot, your defense has to be spot on and it wasn’t tonight.”

Former Charles Henderson, and current Southern Union State Community College, star Joey Denison brought Post 70 within a long double to the gap in right center in the bottom of the sixth inning. Dustin Jordan, of Enterprise, followed Denison’s double with a line drive to left that made it over the left fielder’s head for a game-tying RBI triple.

“We probably should have scored at least one or two more there in the sixth,” said Golden. “If we do our job there and get those runs across, we don’t have to be scratching for runs in the seventh and eighth.”

In the bottom of the seventh, Troy’s leadoff batter got on with a walk, stole second and move to third on a sacrifice fly to right field. However, the winning run was left on third as the next two batters grounded to first and struck out looking to end the scoring threat.

Gadsden went away quietly in the top of the eighth on three Sunday hoppers to shortstop Hunter Baggett.

Baggett led off the bottom of the final inning with a walk, and later stole second to put the winning run in scoring position. He took third on a ground out to second, but Troy was once again denied the winning run as Gadsden forced another ground ball to end the game.

“We had five errors tonight that gave Gadsden at least three runs, maybe four,” Golden said. “If we clean those up, we win this game 4-0. But baseball is funny like that sometimes, and we just have to keep working. We aren’t where we want to be, but we will get there.”