By BRYAN GRISHAM

CSCC Sports Information Director

COLUMBIA - The Cleveland State baseball team made it two for two on Tuesday afternoon as the Cougars rolled into the winner's bracket final of the NJCAA/TCCAA Region VII Conference Tournament with a 3-2 win over the Jackson State Generals. A masterful pitching performance by Ben Booker and several clutch, two-out hits proved to be the winning combination for the Cougars as they remained unbeaten in the double elimination tourney.

With the win, the Cougars will play the winner of the Dyersburg State and Walters State game on Wednesday at 7:00 Eastern time. In other action on Tuesday, Volunteer State eliminated Chattanooga State 5-3 while Columbia State eliminated Southwest Tennessee, 9-7. Columbia State and Jackson State and Volunteer State and the losr of the Walters State/Dyersburg State game will meet in elimination games on Wednesday.

The Cougars struck first with a run in their first turn at the plate. Troy Zawadzki singled, stole second and later scored on a ringing RBI single by Cody Hooper for a 1-0 lead.

Cleveland State tacked on two more runs in the third frame with a little two-out magic as Zawadzki and Andrew Root each drew a walk and Cody Ferrell came through with a single to plate both runners for a 3-0 lead.

That would be the extent of the offensive output as Cleveland State starting pitcher and last week's pitcher of the week,  Booker and Generals starter Gavin Lindsey took turns putting zeros on the board with relative ease.

Leading 3-0 in the top of the seventh and down to their last out, the Generals mounted a rally as Josh Hattaway and Josh Brock each reached base safely on infield singles and scored on a bloop single by Rob Maxwell to cut the lead to 3-2. With runners on first and second, Chris Anselmo got the call from the bullpen. The Cougar closer wasted no time in putting out the fire as he coaxed a grounder to third base for the force out and just like that the Cougars had won the game and secured themselves a spot in the winner's bracket final.

Booker went six and two-thirds innings, scattered five hits with no walks and struck out seven Generals to notch his seventh win of the season while Anselmo got the final out to pick up save number seven of the year. Lindsey suffered the loss for Jackson State. Zawadzki led the Cougars (38-16) by picking up two of their eight hits in the game. 

"Booker did an outstanding job for us today," said Cougar coach Mike Policastro. "Ben has pitched that way the last three or four times out. He was never in much trouble until the last inning and those were seeing eye hits. We swung the bats reasonably well and came up with the big two out hits. That was the key to the win today."