CLEVELAND, Tenn. — After 4 1/2 innings of combined two-hit shutout ball, the bats finally warmed up as District 5 champ Cleveland and District 6 runner-up Ooltewah rounded the bases eight times in the following three team at bats.
Going from a scoreless game to a 5-3 Blue Raider victory in a flash, Cleveland secured it first Region 3 championship game since 2007.
With the hard-fought victory first-year head coach Brent Tucker's Blue Raiders will look to secure their first win in three tries this season over archrival Bradley central Sunday after at 1 in the region title game.
Sunday's victor will get to host a TSSAA Sectional series this week against the Region 4 runner-up.
After barely missing the substate last year for the first time in five seasons, District 6 champion Bradley notched its 25th win in the last 27 games with a 2-1 win over McMinn County in Saturday's other semifinal action.
Making its first region appearance since a state tournament run 17 years ago, 26th-ranked Cleveland (23-11), according to the Maxpreps Class 4A poll, will be dueling the 22nd-ranked Bears (25-7) back at the McKenzie Baseball Complex.
After the archrivals tangle for the region crown, McMinn County (20-16) and Ooltewah (9-21) will square off in an elimination game at 3:30.
The McMinn/Ooletwah victor will turn around and play the Bradley/Cleveland loser for the region runner-up slot and punch its ticket to the other Sectional slot. They will have to travel to Murfreesboro for a best-of-3 series at Region 4 champ and 11th-ranked Siegel (30-12).
The Bradley/Cleveland winner will host the Region 4 runner-up which will be either No. 7-ranked Riverdale (35-10) or No. 16 Wilson Central (24-11), which were battling after presstime Saturday evening.
The Sectional series must be played between Wednesday and Saturday of the coming week, with the TSSAA State Championships set for the following week at Spring Fling.
Starters Jack McBrayer for Cleveland and Ooltewah's Luke Parr dominated the opening 4 1/2 frames, the former allowing just a single and a double in five shutout half frames with the latter not giving up a a hit in 4.2 innings.
After the second out of the bottom of the fifth, the Raiders finally broke through when Evan Liner beat out an infield hit.
Jones Ernest "walked the line" to set the stage for Virginia Tech signee Mycah Jordan to blast his fourth home run of the season, a three-run shot into the parking lot beyond the left field fence.
Ooltewah answered with a trio of runs as well in the top of the sixth when Brock Smallen reached on a Raider miscue. Parr then ripped a RBI-double and advanced to third on another Cleveland error.
After Asa McMillion followed with a base-on balls, Caleb Henson singled home Parr's courtesy runner Jace Archuletta-Scandrett. A third Raider defensive miscue brought in the final run to knot the score at 3-all.
It was Cleveland' turn to take advantage of defensive miscues in the bottom of the inning.
Andrew Wenger reached on a one-out error when his sinking line drive to center popped in and out of the Owl fielder's glove.
River Briggs followed with a single and once again the Ooltewah outfielder made a throwing error that allowed Wenger to go to third and Briggs to second base.
Sophomore Caden Tippens then stepped in the box and delivered a two-run single for what turned out to be the game-winning runs.
Raider senior Tyler Gardner took the hill for the final Owl at bat and struck out a pair and got the other to ground out to Wenger at first to notch the save.
McBrayer gave up four hits, four free passes, struck out a couple and zero earned runs for the win.
Parr put up 5.2 inning of work, allowing just three hits, but four free passes, while posting a trio fo Ks and also not giving up an earned run.
Game Summary
Region 3-4A Semifinals at McKenzie Baseball Complex
Ooltewah 000 003 0 — 3 4 3
Bradley Central 000 032 x — 5 3 3
Parr, Trent (5) and Fields; McBrayer, Gardner (7) and Tippens.
WP: Jack McBrayer. LP: Luke Parr, 0 ER. Save: Tyler Gardner.
Records: Ooltewah 9-21; Cleveland 23-11.
(Contact Joe Cannon at joe.cannon@clevelandbanner.com)