TROY — Troy Legends coach Frosty Brown couldn’t have drawn in up much better for his team in their opening three games of the Frickers Miami Valley Veterans Appreciation Tournament.
Perfect weather, if not for the heat, and three shutouts from his pitching staff in three games.
Something important when you play six games in three days.
Troy started the tournament with an 8-0 win over the Akron A’s, with Grant Saunders pitching a shutout.
In the Legends second game Friday, it was Cy Baisden throwing a shutout as Troy won 9-0.
And in the first game Saturday, Nick Garber and Keith Orndorff combined on a shutout in an 11-0 win over Sidney Red as Troy improved to 5-2 on the season and 3-0 in the tournament lead the National Division.
“Even in our two losses, we had good pitching,” Brown said. “In the lost to Piqua, we only gave up two hits. And in the 6-5 loss to Sidney, our pitching was still pretty good. And we were setting up our pitching staff for the weekend during the week, which is somethiing we will be doing all year. We have a really deep staff. We have had beautiful weather for the tournament and three good games.”
The Troy hitting is now starting to compliment the pitching.
Troy scored five runs in the first against Sidney Saturday afternoon and rolled to the victory.
With one out, Jonny Baileys was hit by a pitch, but thrown out stealing.
Darius Boeke walked and Conner Carver singled.
Warren Hartzell had a RBI single and took second on the throw to the plate.
A walk to Garrett LeMaster loaded the bases and Tucker Miller drew a walk to force in a run and make it 2-0.
Hartzell then scored on a wild pitch and Gavin Martin had a two-run single to cap the rally and make it 5-0.
“We are starting to get our discipline at the plate dialed in,” Brown said.
Troy was the only unbeaten team in its division and had games with Lancaster Post 11 Saturday night and Hillsboro Legion at 1:30 p.m. Sunday — needing one win to be assured of advancing to the championship game at 4 p.m. Sunday.
Sidney White is 4-0 in the American Division and has already locked up its berth in the championship game.
“Looks like we will be playing our friends from Sidney (in the championship),” Brown said. “We still need to win one of these two games to lock it up. We would like to do that. We do have the tiebreaker if it comes down to that.”
After a great start to the Frickers Miami Valley Veterans Appreciation Tournament.