MURFREESBORO, Tenn. -- Only three outs away from an opening-round victory, the inability to make routine plays dampened Ooltewah's hopes for a Class AAA state baseball championship.
Playing at Murfreesboro Oakland's field, Collierville scored two runs in the top of the seventh Tuesday afternoon and three in the bottom of the ninth for a 7-4 victory over the Owls.
Ooltewah (35-8) will play either Farragut (25-14-1) or Ravenwood (27-11) in a losers bracket game Tuesday night at 7 p.m. central at Oakland.
"They just did a better job keeping it in play than we did today,'' Ooltewah coach Jon Massey said. "We just didn't make some routine plays we usually make. And we have been making them all year long.
"We're frustrated, but we're not done.''
Collierville took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first on a two-out wild pitch and a single by Connor Simmons.
Ooltewah rallied and pulled within 2-1 on Blake McDade's RBI single in the bottom of the second. The Owls tied the game on McDade's RBI double in the bottom of the fourth.
The Owls took a 4-2 lead in the bottom of the fifth when Kyler Burke walked and Zack Woods hit a two-run home run. Woods' shot went over the 322 sign in left field and was just inside the foul pole.
Ooltewah carried its 4-2 lead into the top of the seventh, but couldn't hold on. Colliervile (33-12) scored one run on an error and then tied the game on Jason Smith's single.
The Owls struggled defensively again in the top of the ninth when Collierville scored three runs on one infield hit.
"We made a couple of mistakes in the seventh that really hurt us,'' Massey said. "We had battled back and had really lived a charmed life until the seventh. But that's baseball.
"I told them we must come back tonight and play as hard as we have all year. We had too many strikeouts today. We've got to put the ball in play. We've got to get this loss out of their heads and find a way to motivate them tonight.''
Woods and McDade had two hits and two RBI each for the Owls.
John Howard pitched eight solid innings for the Owls, giving ujp eight hits and striking out 14.
BOXSCORE
Collierville 7 (1-0)
Player AB R H RBI BB SO PO A LOB
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Scott ss................. 5 1 2 1 0 1 1 3 3
Shaun 1b................. 4 1 2 1 2 1 7 0 0
Sam pr.................. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Mike 2b.................. 5 1 2 0 1 1 2 0 0
Brad rf.................. 5 1 0 0 1 3 1 0 4
Jason lf................. 4 0 2 1 1 2 1 0 4
Connor cf................ 3 1 1 1 2 0 2 0 0
Reese dh................. 3 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 2
Drew ph/dh.............. 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
Drew p................... 3 0 0 0 1 3 0 3 2
Omar pr................. 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Zach p.................. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Ryan p.................. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Jordan c................. 2 1 0 0 2 0 12 2 0
Justin ph............... 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
Kyler 3b................. 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0
Totals................... 35 7 9 4 11 15 27 9 15
Ooltewah 4 (0-1)
Player AB R H RBI BB SO PO A LOB
------------------------------------------------------
Ryan lf.................. 4 0 0 0 1 3 1 0 3
Jeremy Woods 3b.......... 5 0 0 0 0 2 1 1 0
Kyler rf/1b.............. 4 1 1 0 1 3 1 1 0
Zack Woods ss............ 5 2 2 2 0 0 2 1 2
Tim c.................... 3 0 1 0 0 1 15 0 0
Jake pr................. 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Blake 1b/p............... 2 0 2 2 1 0 4 0 0
Hunter cf................ 3 0 1 0 0 0 2 0 1
Cody 2b.................. 2 0 0 0 2 1 1 1 1
Sean dh/rf............... 4 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 2
John p................... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0
Ryan p.................. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Totals................... 32 4 7 4 5 12 27 6 9
Score by Innings R H E
-------------------------------------------
Collierville........ 200 000 203 - 7 9 0
Ooltewah............ 010 120 000 - 4 7 2
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E - Markum; McDade. DP - Owls 1. LOB - Dragons 15; Owls 9. 2B - Clarke;
McDade. 3B - Markum. HR - Zack Woods. HBP - Moyes; Pomeranz; McDade. SH -
Perryman; Markum; Hydas. SB - Fortenberry.
Collierville IP H R ER BB SO AB BF
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Drew................ 8.0 6 4 4 4 12 28 35
Zach................ 0.2 1 0 0 1 0 3 4
Ryan................ 0.1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1
Ooltewah IP H R ER BB SO AB BF
-----------------------------------------------
John................ 8.0 8 4 3 8 14 30 41
Ryan................ 0.1 0 3 3 3 1 1 4
Blake............... 0.2 1 0 0 0 0 4 4
Win - Ponder (1-0). Loss - Coburn (0-1). Save - Lambert (1).
WP - Howard 2. HBP - by Pomeranz (McDade); by Howard (Moyes); by Howard
(Pomeranz). PB - Wakefield 2; Markum 2.
Umpires -
Start: 10:00 AM Time: 12:50 Attendance:
Game: GAME1
(E-mail Stan Crawley at wscrawley@earthlink.net)