It was a tough way to start the night for the Charles Henderson High School baseball team, who fell in the first game of a doubleheader against Stanhope-Elmore 7-5.

The Trojans found themselves down by four runs after committing three errors in the top of the third inning, allowing the Mustangs to capitalize on their two runs and gain a momentum that would change the pace of the remainder of the game.

“We’re still trying to put everything together as a team,” Trojans head coach Derek Irons said. “We had one bad inning that made all the difference in the game. I felt like we had momentum up to that point and we were confident we could score and then we just gave them four runs.”

The Trojans started off the night with a promising defense led by pitcher Houston Mabray who threw three strikeouts in the first two innings.

The Trojans were good on the infield as well; with Jaylon Lawson bringing in an out on an attempted second base steal.

“We’ve got to be able to put all the pieces together,” Irons said. “We’ve got all the pieces we just haven’t been able to bring it together for a full seven innings. But we have a chance to do that from now on and work to reach our full potential.”

After finding themselves down four runs the Trojans began to stage a rally of their own that kicked off with a Michael Fox home run in the bottom of the third.

The Trojans would add two more points to the board later in the sixth thanks to another homer by Lawson on the last scoring drive for the Trojans.

“They both got good pitches and had great at-bats,” Irons said. “We certainly left some runs on base tonight but it wasn’t our offense that killed us, it was mainly our defense and giving up so many freebies.”

The Trojans other two point came thanks to singles by Greg Barnette and Fox, which all added up to the Trojans only being down by one run going into the final inning.

The Trojan defense held strong, allowing only one run due to an error that also resulted in a double.

For a moment it seemed the Trojans would stage another rally to tie or even win the game, but three quick outs at first base in the bottom of the seventh saw the game come to a close and the Trojans take a loss.

“We gave up a lot of freebies on defense and when you play quality opponents you just can’t do that,” Irons said. “But us giving up so much and being able to come back shows our potential as a team we just have to put it all together.”

At time of press, Charles Henderson led the second game of the doubleheader, 3-1 in the third inning.

Check www.troymessenger.com for more information.