Squeeze bunts. Pick-offs. Double plays.
Troup High School’s baseball club did them all to near perfection Tuesday, and it took a near-perfect effort to not only end Veterans High School’s 24-game winning streak, but also the entire 2013 season for the region champion Warhawks.
The Tigers from LaGrange won both ends of Tuesday’s doubleheader by identical 4-1 scores. This was a part of the GHSA Class AAAA baseball playoffs Elite 8, Veterans advancing this far for the first time in the program’s brief three-year history. While the Warhawks were a region first-place club, Troup qualified for the postseason as the No. 4 team out of Region 5-AAAA, which includes first-place Columbus High, a team knocked out by Redan in the Sweet 16.
It is Redan who will now face Troup in the Final 4 beginning Monday.
For Veterans, the day began in a manner not seen by head coach David Coffey in the last two months of play. With two errors in the top of the first inning, Troup grabbed a 1-0 lead and carried it all the way to the sixth inning. The Warhawks didn’t score until the bottom half, but were behind 4-0 at the time.
Game 2 also saw the Tigers take an early 1-0 advantage via the ‘small ball’ game. Though Veterans scored earlier in this contest, one run again would be all it could muster as Troup went to a reliable left-handed reliever, Jacob Ozley, for his second save of the afternoon.
Garrett McClung was the winning pitcher of Game 1 as he worked into the sixth inning. He scattered three singles through five innings with five strikeouts and two walks.
Veterans left-handed sophomore Ross Martin pitched all seven innings and did not allow a hit until the top of the fifth. When it was over, Troup had a total of four hits while Martin struck out one and did not issue a walk.
Bunts, though, off the Troup bats did the Warhawks in more than anything in the Tiger offensive arsenal.
When that first inning began with a dropped fly ball in the outfield, 6-3 senior Jarrod Adams scrunched at the plate, choked up on the bat and bunted the ball in play. On that, the Warhawks committed the second error.
Jonathan Foster sacrificed both runners to scoring position. Ozley, in the lineup as the first baseman, worked a full count from Martin. On that pitch, he successfully squeezed in Troup’s initial run.
Zane Conlon, Zach Johnson and Micah Wells – all seniors – had Veterans’ hits through the first five innings
The Warhawk defense, after fielding the last two bunts of the first inning, was quite stellar the rest of the way. Martin retired the side in order for three straight frames, three assists coming from David Shiplett at third base and two by second baseman Mickey Dugan – who dove to make a highlight stop in the fourth.
Martin also shut down the Tigers in the fifth despite surrendering the first hit, an infield safety by Bo Halcomb.
But in the sixth, Troup was back to the top of the order, and Brandon Butts reached on an infield hit off Martin’s glove. Instead of bunting, Adams swung away and doubled down the third-base line.
Foster’s first-pitch sacrifice fly plated Butts. Dalton Hadley’s slap single filled the bases for Winston Turner. Troup’s runner on second was practically on third base when a squeeze bunt hit the dirt. Veterans retired the batter, but Troup’s hustle resulted in two runs and 4-0.
Dugan and Conlon ripped back-to-back hits to start the Warhawk sixth and chase McClung. Ozley issued one walk but got out of further damage to strand two on base.
Zach Wilkes singled to start the seventh, but Troup retired him as part of a double play. There would be more twin-killings – not to mention three pick-offs – from the Tigers coming up in Game 2.
GAME 2
Adams started on the mound for the Tigers against Veterans senior lefty R.J. Skeen. The Warhawks batted as the visiting team per the custom of play-off best-of-3 series.
Adams walked Dugan around two fly-ball outs. The pitcher then caught Dugan too far off first and ran him down himself for the third out.
Troup’s offense proceeded to manufacture that first run as Butts singled, Adams bunted him over, and the senior infielder stole third base. Foster bashed a sharp grounder for an infield hit and the RBI.
Johnson singled with one out in the top of the second. Tyler Daughtry engaged in a long foul-ball battle with Adams, at the end of which Adams got the better … of the baserunner catching him in a 1-3-4 rundown. He ended that turn on a strikeout.
Troup had runners on first and second with two outs in the bottom half. Daughtry smothered a grounder off Miles Cameron; it was an infield hit, and Troup’s runner on second never stopped moving until he touched home (2-0).
On to the third, when Shiplett batted after seeing the Tigers turn a 4-6-3 double play. He singled and scored on Kal Dempsey’s triple (only a stumble around third base prevented a tying inside-the-park home run).
Adams pitched into the fifth inning and was pulled after issuing a lead-off walk. Ozley got out of the inning, the last out coming on the game’s third rundown.
Troup went up 4-2 in the bottom half, Cameron starting it with a double to right-center. Butts reached on a bunt hit, and both scored on Adams’ hit. Preston Sparks relieved Skeen and induced three straight flies to Dempsey.
Veterans made a seventh-inning push with hits by Johnson and Kyle King. But it was the Tigers going from first to home on a double play.
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