The Troy Trojans (1-0) scored five runs over the first two innings and topped the Thrall Tigers (0-1) 9-3 in both team’s season open Tuesday night.
A dropped third strike, followed by three consecutive singles, staked the Trojans to a 1-0 lead after one inning. They pushed three more runs across in the bottom of the second. While they weren’t showing signs of power, they were consistently stringing together multiple singles and built a 5-0 lead after two innings.
The Tigers cut into the lead in the top of the third. They opened the inning with four straight hits, but couldn’t push a run across. However, when Hayden Heselmeyer drew a bases loaded walk, Ty Bradford scored and cut the lead to 5-1 with one out. One out later, Maverick McAllister stole home and Carter Bradford’s single to right drove in Jack Watson to make the score 5-3.
Troy erupted for four more runs in the bottom of the sixth. The Trojans led off the inning with three straight doubles, then three straight singles to push their lead to 9-3.
Thrall did hit the ball well, record nine hits in the game. Watson and McAllister each had two hits for the Tigers. Troy was led by Chase Fricke, who had three hits on the night and drove in three runs. Kadyn Martinez added two hits and knocked in a pair of runs for Troy. McAllister took the loss for the Tigers, allowing four runs on six innings through two innings of work. Greg Richardson got the win for Troy. He went four innings and allowed all three Thrall runs on 10 hits.
The Tigers were scheduled to play the Austin ISBL Waves on Friday in Taylor, then will travel to Bruceville-Eddy next Tuesday.
