Making the long trip to Darke County proved to be a good test for the Troy Christian baseball team, who earlier in the week captured the Metro Buckeye Conference championship. On Saturday, the Eagles split a pair of non-conference games against Tri-Village, as they lost in the opening game 5-4 before bouncing back for a 10-2 victory in the second game.

“Tri Village had a well disciplined club, and some big hitters up the middle,” said Troy Christian coach Tony Ferraro. “They come up with some key hits in the first game, and in the second game we scored in six of the seven innings and were able to put the ball in play throughout the game.”

Troy Christian led off the opening game with a one-out triple from Jon Slone, and following a walk to Cameron Davee, Chase Hayden singled in Slone to give the Eagles a quick 1-0 lead.

The Eagles came back in the second and threatened again as Peyton Forrer walked and one out later a single from Sam Kirkpatrick put the Eagles in scoring position again. Scott Douglas hit into a fielders choice and a strikeout ended the threat for the visitors.

Forrer wasn’t threatened until the second when the first two batters reached on a walk and single, but Forrer got a fly out to the right fielder, and two strikeouts to end the threat.

In the fourth inning, the Eagles went back to work with one out, as Carson Kindred reached on an error, and following a wild pitch, a fly ball hit by Douglas was errored allowing Kindred to score, pushing the Troy Christian lead to 2-0.

The Patriots cut the lead in half but it could have been much worse. After loading the bases with nobody out, a walk forced in a run to make it 2-1. Forrer recovered to get a strikeout then the Eagles turned a double play with the catch of a popup behind second base, and they caught the runner off to end the threat.

Tri-Village then scored four times in the fifth to take the lead before the Eagles continued to fight back. The Patriots escaped with the one-run win.

Davee took the loss in the opener, but bounced back to get the win in the second game.

Troy Christian stood 15-5 after the games, but Ferraro was excited how well his team played in league play.

“The best thing is that in every game, it was like 3-1, 2-0, 4-2….it was pitching and defense that won the league for us this year,” he said. “We won the league by three games, which is very difficult to do.”