Straughn battled in two nine-inning games Tuesday against Greenville only to come up short, losing 10-9 in the first game and 5-3 in the second.

“We never gave up,” Straughn coach John Fussell said. “I was proud of them for not quitting. We battled. We had several opportunities to win the games, but we never quit, which is a big plus.”

Tuesday’s losses for the Tigers (18-12, 2-2 in Class 3A, Area 3) come after a close 3-2 loss against Enterprise on Saturday.

Enterprise is a Class 6A school, which made it to the fourth round of the state playoffs last season.

The Tigers will travel to play in the first round of the Class 3A state playoffs on Friday against Headland in a doubleheader starting at 3 p.m., with a game on Saturday if necessary.

Greenville 10, Straughn 9

The leading hitters for Straughn were Josh Dewrell — one double and one single; Cole Armstrong — one single and one RBI; Nick Allen — one double; Tyler Yelverton — one double, one single, one home run and four RBIs; Chase Parker — one single and one RBI; Drew Jones — two home runs; and Zack Stinson — two singles and one RBI.

Stinson, Hughes, Armstrong and Dewrell were all on the mound for the Tigers in the first game.

Stinson pitched 2.0 innings, giving up four hits, one walk and striking out two; Hughes pitched 3.0 innings, giving up one hit, two walks and striking out four; Armstrong pitched 2.0 innings, giving up two hits and zero walks; and Dewrell pitched 2.0 innings, giving up five hits, two walks and striking out two.

Greenville 5, Straughn 3

Josh Dewrell, Cole Armstrong, Nick Allen, Tyler Yelverton, Zack Stinson and Chase Parker were the leading hitters for the Tigers.

Dewrell had one single; Armstrong had two singles; Allen had one double and one RBI; Yelverton had two singles and one RBI; Stinson had one single; and Parker finished with one RBI.

Armstrong pitched 5.0 innings, had seven strikeouts, allowed four walks and five hits; and Allen pitched 4.0 innings, had five strikeouts, allowed zero walks and two hits.

In their series before Tuesday, the Tigers beat Greenville 18-6 and 13-2. Fussell said this time Greenville “found a way to win.”

“I don’t think Greenville is a better team than us, but I just think they found a way to win,” Fussell said. “Last Saturday, we played a 6A team who won their area and is hosting in the first round (of the Class 6A state playoffs). We were up 2-0 through four innings (against Enterprise) and wound up losing 3-2 in the seventh inning.

“We probably played the best game of the season against Enterprise, even though we came up short,” he said.

Fussell said the team did not play up to par in their games Tuesday.

“We did not play well at all,” he said. “We hit the ball real well in the first game and we did not hit it very well in the second. We made too many errors in the field and we made several base running mistakes in both games.”

Enterprise 3, Straughn 2

The leading hitters for Straughn in the Enterprise game were Cole Armstrong, Tyler Yelverton, Nick Allen, Zack Stinson, Drew Jones and Luke Fussell.

Armstrong had one single and one RBI; Yelverton had one double; Allen had one single and one RBI; Stinson had one single; Jones had one single; and Fussell had one single.

Armstrong pitched 4.0 innings, allowing two hits, four walks, zero runs and striking out one.

Cody Hughes pitched 1.0 inning, allowing two hits and striking out two.

Josh Dewrell pitched 1.0 inning, allowing two hits, two walks and striking out two.

“If we can play with Enterprise, than we can play with anybody we got for the rest of the year,” Fussell said.