Troy All-Stars on the way to the Ozone Rookie World Series – The Troy Messenger

Troy’s 11U All-Stars won the Dixie Youth Baseball Ozone Rookies Alabama State Championship last week, securing a spot in the Ozone Rookies World Series in July.

Troy Ozone rookies coach Josh Powell was proud of his team’s fight for the state championship.

“We came out right on Thursday and played a pretty good Prattville team. They threw us off balance with some slow shots, but we won a hard-fought game 5-4,” Powell recalled. “The guys never got discouraged and we fought and won that game. Then we turned around and beat Dothan 18-7 and everything seemed to come alive for us.”

Although the Troy All-Stars suffered a setback later in the tournament, losing 10-9, they were able to recover and capture the state crown.

“We still had that ‘unbeatable’ mentality and won the championship game 9-3. It all worked out well for us,” Powell said. “They really embodied teamwork and believed in each other, and that’s really the mindset we tried to instill in them from the beginning. Don’t play for yourself, play for your teammate, and they did that really well.”

Powell has coached many of his players over the past few years, and he said some of them have competed in the World Series at ages 6 and 8, so they are familiar with that level of competition. Powell said he would expect the same mentality from his team at the World Series.

“I really want to see the same thing from them as we did last week,” he stressed. “I want our style of play, our mentality and our focus to continue like this. They’re at that age of 11 where they can crumble if you put too much pressure on them and fall apart if you don’t put enough pressure on them. I think they’re exactly where they need to be.”

“We decided to give them a week off and then start again next week. It will be the same mindset, the same vision and the same goals.”

The Troy All-Stars will travel to Laurel, Mississippi, for the Ozone Rookies World Series beginning July 18.