CHATTANOOGA - The baseball season came to a painful end for the Cleveland State Cougars on a hot Sunday afternoon in the opening round of the NJCAA/TCCAA REGION VII Tournament at Chattanooga State. In a contest that seesawed back and forth all game long the Cougars came up on the short end of a 7-6 final score as they fell the Motlow State Bucks.

The Bucks drew first blood, breaking up a scoreless game and producing a run on two hits in the bottom of the third inning. Andre Solomon picked up the first Motlow hit of the afternoon, moved to second on a wild pitch and scored on a single back through the box from Kilgore Gailmard for a 1-0 lead.

Cleveland State waited until the top of the fifth frame before picking up their first hit, but quickly made up for lost time as three straight hits led to three runs on the board to put the Cougars on top. DeAndre Allen squeezed a tripled just inside the first base bag and down the right field line to get things rolling and scored the first Cougar run on a single from Randall Coley to tie the game. Coley then scored as Derek Shugart doubled into the left field corner and Shugart crossed on a sacrifice fly by Chase Edwards to give Cleveland State a 3-1 lead.

The lead was short lived though as the Bucks came right back in the bottom of the frame, loading the bases with three straight bunts and Brandon Johnston promptly unloading them with a double in the gap to put his team back on top 4-3.

The Cougars seesawed right back on top in the top of the sixth inning as once again it was Allen driving in a run with a double. Coley then plated a run with a grounder to shortstop and the Bucks booted a Shugart grounder to second allowing a third run to cross as the Cougars took a 6-4 advantage.

The Bucks got one of those runs back in their half of the sixth on a sacrifice fly and then took the lead once again with a two-out rally in the eighth. Gailmard and Solomon picked up a clutch RBI single each to put Motlow on top for good 7-6.

The Cougars season came to an abrupt end in the ninth as Colby Harmon doubled with two-outs to put the potential tying run in scoring position, but an appeal that Harmon missed first base was upheld for the final out.

Ross Spurgeon started on the hill for the Cougars while Jeb Scoggins took the loss. Joey Falletta picked up the win in relief of Josh Mann for Motlow State.

The Bucks will advance to play second seeded Walters State on Monday morning at 10 a.m.