Troy Christian jumped out quickly on Franklin Monroe in the second round of the Division Four sectional tournament last week, only to see their bats silenced for the remaining six innings as the Eagles lost to the Jets 2-1. The loss eliminated the Eagles from the tournament, and they finished the season with a 16-6 record and a Metro Buckeye Conference championship.
“Franklin Monroe was the fourth seed and we knew it would be a good ballgame,” said Troy Christian coach Tony Ferraro.
Troy Christian didn’t waste any time putting the first run of the game on the board. John Slone walked in the opening inning, and moved up on a hit by Jacob Brown. When Cameron Davee singled in Slone, the Eagles took the early 1-0 lead.
“Baseball is a game made up of moment by moment, and you never look ahead,” Ferraro said. “We scored right away, but then only had two hits the rest of the game. You have to give credit to their pitcher.”
Also last week, the Eagles defeated Cedarville 3-2 in eight innings to get to the game against the Jets.
Cedarville scored one run in the top of the first inning, but in the third inning the Eagles fought back.
Peyton Forrer walked and moved to third on a hit from Andrew Strait. Douglas then singled to center to tie the game at 1-1.
An inning later, Davee doubled and Forrer drove in a run to give Troy Christian a 2-1 lead.
After the Indians tied the game in the top of the sixth, neither team could break the tie until the game went to extra innings. In the eighth inning, the Eagles went to work.
Douglas reached on a bunt single, Slone walked and Brown moved the runners over. Chase Hayden then dropped a single to score the winning run.
While scoring the winning run, Douglas also pitched well for the Eagles, as he pitched a complete game allowing six hits and struck out eight. With the win, he finishes the season 7-0.
“Scott is our leader and a senior,” Ferraro said. “In this game, we added three hits and had a quite a game. We rode him all year as the leadoff hitter.”
“It was an exciting game and the kids were really into it, it was a total team effort,” the coach said. “You can tell its tournament time.”
Ferraro was impressed with how the season went for the guys.
“When you go into the preseason you look at all avenues to get better,” he said. “We started off 1-3 and struggled all phases and would on fundamentals every day. Early in the year, we were striking out at plate, at the end of the year we put the bat on the ball.”
“We play a very healthy non-league schedule, Oakwood twice, Newton twice and split with both,” he added. “We made good strides and we were undefeated in the MBC, and they say that doesn’t happen in this league.”