The two winners-bracket semifinal games in the District 6-AA baseball tournament at Hixson were totally different from each other on Saturday afternoon.
The regular-season champion and top-seed Hixson had to fight for its life before overcoming East Ridge in a tense 6-5 first game while second-seed needed just six innings to beat Tyner, 11-1.
East Ridge now faces Tyner in a losers bracket game on Monday at 4:30 while Hixson and Central will meet for the time at 7.
HIXSON 6, EAST RIDGE 5: The Pioneers had everything to gain and absolutely nothing to lose in a game nobody really expected them to be in, but they did themselves proud as they had the Wildcats on the ropes before losing on the final pitch.
Kind of like a heavyweight fight, the champion was in trouble, but the challenger just came up a little bit short.
A sacrifice fly from Brandon Carver in the first inning drove in Matt Oxford and allowed Hixson to take an early 1-0 lead, but Chris Callaham had a two-run single in the third and drove in a third run on a fielder's choice in the fifth as the Wildcats were down 3-1.
Carver was the man of the hour for Hixson in the bottom of the fifth as his two-out double drove in Jack Julian and Cabe Davis with the tying runs.
Jesse Jones and Gavin Reiniche both had run-scoring singles in the sixth as the Pioneers quickly went ahead at 5-3 before a single by Xan Tobias in the bottom of the inning plated Tyler Weaver as the deficit was trimmed to 5-4.
Then in the bottom of the seventh with the game on the line, Davis led off with a walk and Carver singled. Two outs later, Logan Rigsby came through with a clutch single to center and both Davis and Carver scored when the ball got past the East Ridge player to end the game.
"That's just typical district tournament baseball," said Hixson coach Colton Green later.
"Everybody puts up their best fight when we get to this part of the season, but we just had to tough out a big win over East Ridge. Rigsby got a huge hit with two outs in the seventh, but we have to get ready for Monday now.
"I really didn't say anything more than I normally say, but we just tried to be patient at the plate and it paid off at the end," Green said after his team had improved to 23-10.
East Ridge coach Randall Bolden was certainly pleased with what he saw from his team.
"This is a baseball team that had not won a district tournament game in the last 10 years and we pushed the number-one team to the very last out," he explained later.
"We had a bunch of younger guys who stepped up, but I feel like we have the ability to play with anybody and it's a real testament to just how hard these kids have worked," he added.
Oxford was the winning pitcher as he worked two innings in relief of starter Kenon Markum. Jones was the tough-luck loser after replacing sophomore Eric Bennett in the sixth.
Rigsby was the only Hixson player with three hits while Carver and Weaver had two each.
Freshman Eli King had three hits for the Pioneers while Jones and Reiniche both had two.
CENTRAL 11, TYNER 1: This was somewhat of a ho-hum affair after the excitement of the first game died down, but the Purple Pounders came to play ball and they advanced without much trouble.
Winning pitcher Joe Clark was the only Central player with two hits as his team finished with seven, but they took advantage of six Tyner errors to score at least two runs in four of the six innings.
Clark was also in control on the hill as he limited the Rams to just three hits. The only run he allowed came on a hit batter, a stolen base and consecutive grounders to short.
Meanwhile, Central's offense was ready to perform as they put three on the board in the first, three more in the third before scoring twice in the fourth and finishing things off with three in the sixth.
"We came out, got a few hits and were able to take control early and that was important for us today," said Central coach Glen Carter after his team had improved to 15-18.
"We did what we wanted to do and Joe Clark pitched well as he threw a lot of strikes. Now we have to shift our attention to Hixson, who beat us twice in the regular season. We played about as well as we could today and I'm pleased.
"We still have a losing record, but those 18 losses don't mean anything once you get to the tournaments. Everything starts over, but we just have to keep playing well," Carter nodded.
Tyner coach Rob Flowers wasn't the happiest guy on the field when the game ended.
"We didn't hit it very well as we were swinging at bad pitches and we had a hard time finding the strike zone. It's frustrating, but give credit to Central as they've beaten us three times this year and they're obviously a better team, but we'll come back out on Monday and try again," he added.
Cornelius Halfacre had an infield single in the first while Tyner's other hits included singles from Jaylen Bowens in the fifth and Deondre Williams in the sixth.
Shellie Hampton scored the only run for the Rams in the fifth when he got hit to lead off the inning before stealing second. He went to third on a grounder to short by Donte Reviere and scored on another grounder to short by Emmanuel Moss.
Walker Waters had a solo homer for Central in the third and scored three times while Tanner Mowery singled once, walked twice and also scored three runs for the Pounders.
Ryan Montgomery's single drove in Central's ninth run while an error on a hard-hit grounder by Paul Taylor allowed the last two runs to score to end the game.
EAST RIDGE 002 012 0 -- 5 10 1
HIXSON 100 021 2 -- 6 12 2
Bennett, Jones (6) and King; Markum, Oxford (6) and Julian.
TYNER 000 001 -- 1 3 6
CENTRAL 303 203 -- 11 7 1
Moss, Strong (5) and Halfacre; Clark and Mowery.
(email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)