Dawson Bradford hit double in the bottom of the eighth inning to clinch the district championship for the Troy AAA Americans on Friday night.

In a best-of-three series, Troy won game one 14-3 before clinching the title in game two 7-6.

“Game two they threw their best at us,” said head coach David Nelson. “It was much better pitching. Our mistakes kept them in the game, otherwise it would have been a 6-2 ballgame. We can play a much cleaner game than the way we played the second game. They are a good team and they capitalized on the mistakes. Coming out on top builds a lot of character. We took a few steps forward tonight.”

Troy used an eight-run third inning to pull away from Enterprise in game one.

The game was tied at one entering the third. Troy had seven hits in the inning, which helped Charlie Fountain, Jayden Law, Slade Russell, Luke Barron, Dawson Bradford, Brody Joice, Jack Baggett and Tucker Vaughn.

Troy finished with 11 hits. Russell, Barron, Bradford, Baggett and Carter Nelson each had two hits.

Enterprise got off to a roaring start in the first inning of game two. They sent nine batters to the plate and scored three runs on two hits including a two-run double. Elliot walked three batters and hit another in the inning.

Troy got two back in the bottom of the second. Carter Nelson dropped down a sacrifice bunt that allowed Baggett to score. After that out was committed, Enterprise threw the ball into the outfield, allowing Tucker Vaughn to score from second to bring the score to 3-2 in favor of Enterprise.

Enterprise added a run in the third to go up 4-2 before Bradford walked with the bases loaded to score John Foster Hamm to once again cut Enterprise’s lead down to 1 at 4-3.

Enterprise added two more runs in the fourth to go up 6-3 heading into the bottom of the fourth inning.

Troy battled back to even the score at 6, forcing the game into extra innings. Slade Russell began the threat with a walk in the eighth inning. After a wild pitch landed him on second, he raced home for the winning run.

Troy will head to Eufaula for the state tournament beginning on July 12.