With their ace on the sidelines, the Troup Lady Tigers are moving forward.

Taylor Morris, Troup’s senior pitcher, suffered a broken hand during Saturday’s final game in the Callaway Classic softball tournament.

Morris’ injury has opened up a spot for Emily Green, and she got the start during Tuesday’s Region 5-AAAA opener against Alexander.

Although the Lady Tigers (6-6) lost 10-2, Troup coach Blair Shimandle said Green did a nice job of settling down after a slow start.

“Emily, after they hit her really hard, she started to shut them down,” Shimandle said. “That was huge that she did that.

“Emily, now that she knows she’s got to pitch, she’s working hard and she’s stepping it up big-time. I couldn’t be any prouder of her.”

Troup got down 10-0 before scoring single runs in the fourth and fifth innings.

The Lady Tigers seemed to have some momentum at that point, but the game ended because of the run rule.

Shimandle liked the way the players kept competing after falling into a huge early deficit.

“Sometimes, the other team’s just going to out-hit you. That first and second inning, they were just crushing the ball,” Shimandle said. “They didn’t just die after that. They kept battling, kept playing defense.

“The dugout stayed loud the whole time. They were battling at the plate, they were battling defensively. They were making great catches in the outfield.”

Troup scored its first run in the fourth inning when Sidney Green delivered a sacrifice fly.

In the fifth inning, after Jessica Gilbert walked and Hanna Lane reached on an infield single, Amber Arnold put down a sacrifice bunt, and Hayley Morris knocked in a run with a sacrifice fly.

Despite the big deficit, Shimandle figured it was sound strategy to bunt the base runners over in the inning.

“When you’re down by that much, you normally don’t do that, but we wanted to extend it by another inning,” Shimandle said.

Troup faces another tough region test on Thursday when it visits Carrollton.