By KEVIN ECKLEBERRY

Daily News

Everything is lined up for the Troup Tigers.

With Thursday’s 8-0 victory over the visiting Sandy Creek Patriots, the Tigers remained in a tie for first place in Region 5-AAAA with a 6-1 record.

If the Tigers win their final five region games, they will be the region champions, so their destiny is in their own hands.

“We have some tough games to play, but they know,” Troup head coach Craig Garner said. “It’s been clearly explained. It’s in our hands. So we can attack each game like it’s your last, and finish it off, or we can slip once and may be sitting in second or third place.”

Thursday’s game ended in the bottom of the fifth inning when Troup had two men on base and leading 8-0.

With rain starting to fall, Sandy Creek head coach Nick Pou felt conditions had deteriorated to the point where the game needed to be stopped.

The umpires disagreed and the game continued.

Pou informed the umpires that his team wasn’t going to continue to play, so the game ended at that point, and Troup had the win.

Colby Williams pitched the five-inning shutout, and he was dominant as usual.

Williams held Sandy Creek to three hits in five innings, and he had nine strikeouts.

Williams wastes little time between pitches, and that worked in Troup’s favor with the potential for some nasty weather.

“It was even more important today with the imminent weather on us, to not waste a whole lot and go at them and attack,” Garner said. “He probably gave up a couple of hits that we might not have given up if we’d been a little more careful. The bottom line was we wanted to get to that 4 ½ inning mark before there was any lightning.”

Williams, a speedy worker, just did what he always does.

“I knew we had to get the 4 ½ innings in, but I pitch at a fast pace anyway, so it wasn’t much different,” Williams said.

Cooper Doughman led Troup’s offensive effort with three hits, Colby Williams had a pair of doubles, and Colton Webb had a triple and a double with two RBIs.

Trace Meadows and Tre Mosley each had a hit.

The Tigers jumped on top with two runs in the bottom of the second inning.

Williams led off with a double, and he scored on Webb’s triple.

Webb came in to score on a wild pitch, giving Troup a 2-0 lead.

Troup plated four more runs in the third inning.

Caleb McCurry reached on an error, and Cooper Doughman’s one-out single put men on first and third.

McCurry came home on a double steal, and courtesy runner Hunter Kitchens scored on a wild pitch to give Troup a 4-0 lead.

After Williams reached on an error, Webb’s run-scoring double pushed the lead to 5-0, and Daniel Martin’s RBI groundout capped the four-run rally.

After a scoreless fourth inning, Troup pushed two runs across in the bottom of the sixth.

Trace Meadows and Doughman got things started with back-to-back singles, and Williams struck again with an RBI double to give Troup a 7-0 lead. Kitchens, once again running for Doughman, scored on a wild pitch to cap the scoring.