The American Legion Post 70 19U baseball team began the Mark Smartt Tournament with a 13-6 win over the Gulf Coast Lightning on Friday afternoon at Riddle-Pace Field.

Brayden Baggett got the start for Post 70. The lefty threw four innings and allowed five runs, only two of which were earned on five hits. Former Pike Liberal Arts Patriot Nathan Renfroe pitched the game’s final two innings and allowed one unearned run on one hit.

Baggett got himself into trouble in the first inning. The Lightning had three batters reach via a Baggett walk. After walking, their leadoff hitter scored the game’s first run on a stolen base following a pickoff attempt.

The Lightning doubled their lead in the second. Baggett surrendered three singles including an RBI single to center field to extend their lead to 2-0 heading into the third inning.

Post 70 used walks to their advantage in the third. The Lightning walked four Post 70 batters, two of which came with the bases loaded to even the game at 2. Ryan Tomlin singled to right to give Post 70 a 3-2 lead and Nate Renfroe hit a sacrifice fly to center field scoring Baggett and increasing Post 70’s lead to 4-2.

Post 70 jumped out to a 7-2 lead in the fourth inning. Dylan Register scored the first run of the game on another bases-loaded walk. James Jones came around to score on a wild pitch for Post 70’s second run of the inning before Baggett grounded out, allowing Jinright to score run number 7.

The Lightning added three runs of their own in the bottom half of the inning. They did so on two hits, a walk, and an error to bring the score to 7-5.

Troy put the game out of reach one final time when they scored six runs in the sixth and final inning of the contest.

Baggett ripped a two-run double to right field allowing both Jinright and Gage Herring to score. Baggett came around to score on a Tomlin groundout for Post 70’s third run of the inning. Renfroe followed suit with his second sacrifice fly of the game, this time to left field. DJ Law finished off the inning when he clobbered a pitch to right field for a home run, bringing the score to 13-5.

Post 70 finished the game with six hits by six different players. Baggett tallied one hit, but drove in five runs to lead Post 70. Tomlin, Law, Register, Jones and Jinright all had one hit.