Girard’s Tyler Bennett led off the first inning of the first game with a home run and that was about all the Trojans needed to knock off Northeast 19-1.
Both teams battled it out in the second game, but it was the Trojans that came away with a 9-6 win.
“We swung the bats very well in that first game and our first inning really set the tone for the first game,” said Girard head coach Keith Matlock.
On top of his solo shot in the first, Bennett drilled a grand slam home run in the top of the fourth.
“They had a couple little plays and in the fourth we could not get anything going,” said Northeast head coach Tim Buche.
The bright spot for Northeast was Jordan Doherty. For the series, he was 4-for-6 with three runs scored.
It was the second game when Northeast battled back.
Girard took a 6-0 lead into the bottom of the third when Northeast scored three in the bottom of the inning to cut the Trojans’ lead in half.
“I think we got up 6-0 and we got really complacent,” Matlock said. “We completely went away from what we were doing in the first game and we were just rolling over ground balls and the next thing we know it is a 6-3 ball game.”
But, Buche said that the Trojans utilized their team speed to throw Northeast off balance.
“It was a good ballgame and it was a little more like we were playing in the middle of the season,” Buche said. “A walk turned into a triple for them because they were able to steal the bases very well.”
Both teams were held scoreless until Girard’s Taylor Woods drilled a solo home run in the top of the seventh that started a three-run inning for the Trojans.
“It turned out to be a pretty big run and we were able to push a couple more runs across in the inning,” Matlock said.
Northeast responded by scoring three of their own in the bottom of the seventh but it was not enough to overcome the Trojans’ advantage.
“They put the ball in play pretty well and took care of most of the balls that were hit to them,” Matlock said.

High school baseball
at Arma
Game one
Girard 19, Northeast 1
Girard        233 (11) — 19 14 0
Northeast    000 1 — 1 2 1
Jordan Doherty, Josh Tingley (4) and Marc Graves, Alex Jones (4). Stanley Brown and Taylor Woods and Devon Hudspeth (4). WP — Brown. LP — Doherty. 2B — Stanley Brown, Logan Cherry. HR — Tyler Bennett 2, Stanley Brown, Jeremy Grosstephen.
Game two
Girard 9, Northeast 6
Girard        132 000 3 — 9 10 3
Northeast    003 000 3 — 6  9  1
Todd Brennon and Alex Jones. Reid Murphy and Devon Hudspeth. WP — Murphy. LP — Brennon (2-2). 2B — Taylor Woods, Joe Grilz, Alex Jones. HR — Taylor Woods.