Tony Whitehead

DAPHNE — The Daphne Trojans closed their 2007 season Friday when Russell County teamed two outstanding pitching performances for a sweep of the No.1 ranked Trojans Friday in Daphne.

The Warriors knocked DHS out of the top-spot and the playoffs with back-to-back, second-round wins starting with a 4-0 shutout to open and a 5-1 nightcap victory.

Despite the sudden exit from the playoffs, DHS Coach Joe Hutchins was proud of his team and said they should all be proud of themselves.

“I’m proud of all our guys, especially our seniors,” he said. “This team started out struggling early on, but they got on a roll and that did a lot for their confidence. And they started playing great baseball and even today, we didn’t play badly. But against a really good team, we had a couple of situations that hurt us, we got behind and against great teams it’s hard when you get behind and we did both times. They had the momentum, we checked it, but they are a great team. Their pitching was just so solid and we just didn’t do enough today.”

The Trojans ended the year as6A Area 3 champions and a 31-5 season including a remarkable streak of two-dozen-plus-two straight victories and a first-round state playoff win.

The 39-8 Warriors play at Opelika in the third round playoffs this Friday. RCHS got it done in round two with the help of Crimson Tide committed Daniel Danielson in game one and Courtney Jefferson in game two.

Daphne junior left hander Ryan Hines took the first loss to go 8-2 for the year and John Blanchette in game two for a 9-2 season.

For the Trojans at the plate, centerfielder Daniel Peterson had the lone hit for DHS against Danielson. Against Jefferson, DHS was the visitor and put together three hits in the sixth.

Trailing 2-0 after five, Trojan designated hitter Will Stickney led off with a double, Will Stringer made a sacrifice bunt work to put Stickney at third. Cody Barber laid down another bunt but Stickney was called out on the fielder’s choice. Barber made it to second on a single by Trey Early and scored on an RBI single by Peterson to make it 2-1.

But that was as close as the Trojans would get.