A night after a disappointing loss on their home diamond Cleveland High went to the north end of the county and turned things around with a late comeback win to open action of the Joe Adams Memorial-Alzheimer Awareness Classic, at Mike Turner Field.
Falling to Soddy-Daisy 6-3 Wednesday, the Blue Raiders bounced back for a 3-1 victory over Lincoln County.
Cleveland (5-4) will return to Classic action Saturday when Coffee County and East Hamilton come to Bill Talley Stadium for back-to-back games, starting at 11:45 a.m.
The Raiders will continue their home stand with Red Bank, Ooltewah and Bradley central coming in Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The first two games are 6p.m. first pitches, while Good Friday's play will start at 4 p.m.
After three scoreless innings, the boys from Fayetteville opened the scoring with a solo run in the top of the fourth, with what turned out to be their lone score.
Leaving seven "ducks on the pond" after four hits and five free passes in its first five at bats, Cleveland finally broke through in the bottom of the sixth.
Coming up with a trio of runs without benefit of a hit, the Raider rally started with Jack McBrayer reaching on an error, before Collin Stuart drew a walk and River Briggs reached on another Falcon miscues on bunt to load the sacks.
McBrayer scored on a throwing error, while Stuart came home after a dropped third strike and Briggs was safe at home after a passed ball.
Cleveland had four hits in the contest, including singles by McBrayer, Cutter Womack, Mycah Jordan and Nolan Copeland.
C Lee earned the pitching victory, going six innings, striking out 13 and walking just one, while scattering four hits.
McBrayer took the bump for the final frame, earning a save with a pair of strikeouts.
Soddy-Daisy ran all over the place with 10 free passes and was 14-of-14 stolen base attempts to notch its second win of the young season over Cleveland.
The Trojans opened Wednesday's win by scoring a run without benefit of a hit in the initial at bat.
The visitors put up a 3-spot in the third frame, once again set up by free passes.
The Trojans tacked on a solo score in the top of the fourth when once again a free pass set the stage as the runner stole second, moved to third on a throwing error on the play and came in on a single.
The Raiders finally got the goose egg off the bottom of the scoreboard when Womack stroked a double to lead off the home half of the fourth. He then stole third and came to the plate on a throwing error.
The hosts added another run when Tyler Gardner drew a free pass to open the bottom of the fifth, moved up to third on a single by Stuart and then came home on a wild pitch.
Both teams put up a run in the sixth with Cleveland's Andrew Wenger working a base on balls and circled the bases on a two-out double by Caden Tippens for the game's final score.
