By KEVIN ECKLEBERRY

Daily News

It was a losing day for the Troup High softball team, but head coach Kayla Yeargin wasn’t discouraged.

Troup found itself trailing 5-1 in the second inning of Tuesday’s game, but it fought back to make a game of it against a formidable Chapel Hill squad before falling 6-4.

Yeargin hopes the game will lead to some positive things as Troup hits the home stretch of its Region 5-AAAA schedule.

Troup (5-12 overall) will carry a 2-5 region record into Thursday’s road game against Sandy Creek.

“I told (the players) I hate to lose,” Troup head coach Kayla Yeargin said. “So that part of me is upset. But this is Troup softball. This is what we’ve been waiting for. We always have to push the second half of the season, and this was the beginning of that push that we need.”

Troup was coming off three straight blowout losses against Cedartown, Central-Carroll and Heard County, and it looked like it could be more of the same early on in Tuesday’s game.

Troup persevered and hung tough, though, getting as close as one before Chapel Hill scored an insurance run in the seventh inning.

“There are still some things to work on, but overall things are getting better,” Yeargin said. “The defense is looking better. We’re going in the direction we want to be. And we get everybody twice (in the region). We’ve played everybody one time, so we’re good to go.”

Troup surged to a 5-1 lead on an Ivory Jones grand slam in the top of the second inning.

Troup answered with a run in the bottom of the second, and Kayla Lane’s two-run home run in the fifth inning made it a one-run game.

Lexi Parker was hit by a pitch leading off the fifth inning, and Lane drove the ball over the left-field fence to cut Chapel Hill’s lead to 5-4.

Troup also got a single run in the first inning on an RBI single by Skye Loftin, and another run scored when Lane reached on an error in the second inning.

Chapel Hill capped the scoring with its seventh-inning run.