The Troy Ponytails breezed their way to the sub-district championship game on Tuesday, beating their opponents 14-4, 12-6, and 21-2. They continued their dominating success Tuesday night by defeating Andalusia 19-12.

The championship win for the Ponytails ensures their advancement to the District Tournament starting Friday night.

“I think they did well,” said head coach Matt Leverette. “I could tell when we warmed up that we weren’t as sharp as we were over the weekend, but I was proud of the girls from the standpoint that even if you don’t have your best game, you’re still able to push through and win the game.”

Although the hitting stole the show for the Ponytails all week long, the pitching staff also had a huge impact. Morgan Bundy kept that going Tuesday evening.

Bundy finished the game pitching 4 2/3 innings while allowing six hits while striking out five batters. Sadie Leverette came in and closed out the remaining inning and a third without relinquishing a run.

Bundy also led the way at the plate; she finished the game going 3-4. Mary Heffner and Dannah Dawson also racked up multiple hits, finishing 2-3. Kendall Navarre, Abbi Campbell, Emily Williamson and Grace Rushing all had hits as well.

The Ponytails finished their tournament with a perfect 4-0 record and coach Leverette was impressed every step of the way.

“We managed to finish undefeated and that is always good,” Leverette said. “Friday’s game and the two games we played on Saturday were exceptional, especially the morning game. I thought that was probably our best game.”

The Ponytails finished the tournament having never trailed at any point in a ball game. They outscored their opponents 66-24 during the tournament. Good timely hitting and an aggressive approach helped.

“We took a lot of batting practice, and worked on the pitching machine to get our timing down to get ready,” coach Matt Leverette said. “As we progress through district we will be facing better pitching so we have tried to address that with faster speeds off the pitching machine as well as taking live batting practice off our pitchers.”

That aggressive approach led to many hits and a lot of runs that put too much pressure on the opposition.

“We may have been a little too aggressive,” Leverette said. “We didn’t get as many walks as I would have liked. That’s because we were swinging the bat, and it worked out. We got a lot of base hits, and we scored a lot of runs.”

The young pitching staff quietly pitched well during the week only allowing the 24 runs in the tournament, half of those coming Tuesday night.

The depth of the pitching staff led the way for the Ponytails during the tournament. The depth protected the ponytails pitchers against the pitch limit rule opposed by the league.

“We have a very good situation, we have three pitchers on the team,” Leverette said. “I didn’t see any other team in our sub-district with three pitchers at the same caliber as mine. There are some good pitchers out there, but none of them with three.”

To top it off, the three pitchers for the Ponytails are in the first year playing in the league.

The Ponytails now start preparing for a step-up in talent level at district, and Leverette won’t let the players rest on their laurels.

“That’s one thing we have to be careful of,” Leverette said. “We know there is good competition out there. This weekend we played a lot better than we did in the warm up tournament. I am hoping we are peaking at the right time. I hope the girls will keep their focus, they have done a good job of that so far.”

Round one of the District Tournament for the Ponytails will be Friday night at 8:30 p.m. in Greenville.