By BRYAN GRISHAM

CSCC Sports Information Director

COLUMBIA - The cardiac Cougars put a couple more gray hairs on the head of Cleveland State coach Mike Policastro on Monday afternoon as they needed one of their patented last at-bat, last out, last strike clutch hits to win their opening game of the NJCAA/TCCAA Region VII Conference Tournament held at Columbia State Community College in middle Tennessee.

After several days of standing around and watching the rain fall and the creek rise, the Cougars fell behind early, but came storming back to win a 5-4 thriller over their arch rival, the Chattanooga State Tigers. With the win, the Cougars will move on to play Jackson State on Tuesday at 5:30 Eastern time.

In other opening round games, Chattanooga State won their play-in game, 14-3 over Motlow State as they moved on to play Cleveland State, Southwest Tennessee topped Roane State, 9-2 in the other play-in game to move on to play top seeded Walters State. Dyersburg State shutout Columbia State 4-0 and Jackson State squeaked by Volunteer State, 2-1 in nine innings.

Chattanooga State put a run on the board in the top of the first inning as Daniel Merck tripled and scored on a groundout by Adam Whitlock for a 1-0 lead. The Tigers then doubled their lead in the third on an RBI single from Zack DeBord for a 2-0 advantage.

The Cougars got that run back in the bottom of the third as Troy Zawadzki and Andrew Root each singled while Zawadzki later scored on a balk, cutting the Tiger lead to 2-1.

The Cougars finally shook off the rust of a 10 day layoff as they took the lead in the bottom of the fourth with a three-run outburst. Adam Hindman started the rally with a double, moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on an error. Lance Rorex reached first the hard way by taking one for the team, stole second and later scored on a single from Jay Huffman and Root added an RBI single to the cause as the Cougars took a 4-2 lead.

The Tigers would not go quietly though as they tied the game again with a pair of runs in the top of the fifth. Merck doubled in a run while DeBord singled in another to knot the score at 4-4.

The score stayed right there until the Cougars took their last turn at the plate in the bottom of the seventh. With two outs and the bases empty, Cody Ferrell got things started with a single, he then moved to second on a walk to Hindman and to third on a wild pitch. Matt Brewer became the man of the moment as he promptly ripped a game-winning, RBI single to push Ferrell across the plate for an amazing 5-4 win.

"It was a good win, the guys kept battling and somehow found a way to win, they've done that all year," explained Policastro. "Jay (Bolen) and Chad (Fromm) did a good job of keeping us in it and then Matt came up with the big hit. It's good to get that first game behind us after being off for so long. It's survive and move on at this point."

Jay Bolen started for the Cougars (37-16) allowing three earned runs in four plus innings of work while Fromm was outstanding out of the bullpen, tossing two plus innings in relief without allowing a hit to get the win. Tyler Burstrom took the loss for the Tigers in relief of Travis Murphy who started the game. Root, Hindman and Zawadzki all had two hits to pace the Cougars.

Tuesday's lineup will see Dyersburg State play the Walters State and Southwest winner, Volunteer State and Chattanooga State will meet in the losers bracket while Columbia will play the loser of Walters and Southwest game.