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Top seed falls in first round
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The No. 1-seed Eastside Eagles were upset by fourth-seed Troup County in the first round of the Class AAAA playoffs Friday.

The Eagles fell 11-7 and 13-2 and ended their season 21-5.

“It’s disappointing but this just means we start over and go to next year,” coach Jon Ayres said. “The Eagles sent pitcher Peyton Pallay to the mound for game one, which began with a 3-0 Troup lead.

In the bottom of the third inning, Eagles outfielder Cody Walker scored on a wild pitch by Tigers’ pitcher Garrett McClurg. In the fourth inning, the Eagles would score three more runs — a two-run homer by Daniel Garrett, and an RBI single by Hunter Ballard.

Eastside added to their lead in the fifth inning on a two-run home run by Nick Womack. The sixth inning is where Troup would strike. An RBI single by Tigers’ infielder Brandon Butts scored the first run of the inning. But a grand slam home run by Jonathan Foster would give the Tigers back the lead.

Two more runs would score on a two-run home run by Dalton Hadley and one more run would score off of a single by Bo Halcomb.

The Eagles wouldn’t score the rest of the first game, as pitcher Winston Turner secured the win for Troup.

The Eagles sent Daniel Garrett to the mound in game two, and Eastside managed a 2-0 lead for him on a double by Musashi Briem and a single by Drew Buckhault.

Those runs would be the only of the game for the Eagles.

In the bottom of the first, Troup scored its first run, and evened it up at 2-2 on an RBI by Jacob Ozley in the third.

The fourth inning is where Troup would start to blow the game open.

Two runs scored on back-to-back singles by Bo Halcomb and CJ Tatum, and two more on a single by Jonathan Foster.

The Tigers continued to pile on scoring 13-unanswered runs.

“They did a great job and that’s a good ball team we played,” Ayres said. “The first game we had them. If we had a few good pitches there, we would have won that game. The second game they hit the ball, and they hit the ball real well.”

Ayres said that the team will rebound off this loss and come back strong next year.

“We got some seniors leaving but we got a good group of young boys coming up and we’ll get them ready for next year,” he said.

Ayres said that there is no doubt that the Eagles will win another region title next year. The Eagles won 8-AAAA region this year.