From Millingtontrojans.com
The Millington Trojans took on the Lausanne Lynx March 21 at Miles Park in Millington as part of the 2022 Flag City Classic. Both Millington and neighboring private school Tipton-Rosemark Academy host the annual showcase as a chance for the Rebels to play public schools. Meanwhile Millington takes on some of the best private school teams in the area. Lausanne provided a tough challenge for the public school Trojans outlasting Millington 14-7. The loss came after a solid opening week for the Trojans. Millington picked up opening week wins over MHEA, Halls, Dyersburg and White Station.
The Trojans snapped a 5 game losing streak with a win over Fayette Academy Saturday afternoon 7-2. They are now 5-5 heading into their district opener with Bolton.
As good as the first week of the season was for the Trojans, the second was equally as bad. They raced out to a 4-1 start in that first week with good pitching and timely hitting including two walk-off wins. The second week featured all home games in the Flag City Classic and they were taking on a lot of the area’s private schools and they struggled in every facet of the game. So there was a lot on the line going into the game vs the Vikings of Fayette Academy as the Trojans needed to right the ship heading into the district opener this week.
When you play multiple games in a week and your starting pitching struggles, it makes it really tough as the week goes on due to the pitch limit that is in place with the TSSAA. When Travis Gafford took the mound to start the game Saturday, head coach Colter Millican really needed him to go deep in this game and that’s just what he did.
Gafford pitched a complete game, only allowing one hit while striking out 10. He threw 97 pitches and 58 of those were strikes. The only runs allowed were unearned and Travis was in complete control the entire game.
The offense did its part as well by jumping out 5-0 after just one inning. Alex Jennings reached on a two base error. With one out, Matt Anderson singled and Jennings went to third and then scored on a passed ball. Gafford walked and Andrew Van reached on an error, loading the bases with just one out. Tate Ervin walked, forcing in Anderson for the second run of the inning & AJ Wilkerson reached on a fielder’s choice and Gafford scored on the play to make it 3-0. Jayden Fiene then walked, forcing in Van and Nathan White singled and Ervin scored with the fifth run of the inning.
After giving up two unearned runs in the top of the second, the Millington offense went back to work. Brock Musgrove and Matt Anderson singled to start the inning and Gafford sacrificed them to second and third bases. Van then doubled to left, scoring both runners and giving the Trojans their final runs of the game.
