By BRYAN GRISHAM

CSCC Sports Information Director

COLUMBIA - To quote that famous baseball phillosopher, Yogi Berra, "It's a short trip from the penthouse to the outhouse." Unfortunately for the Cleveland State baseball team, it was a top to bottom trip on Thursday in the NJCAA/TCCAA Region VII Baseball Tournament as the Cougars started the day undefeated in the tourney, but two games later the season was over. The Cougars dropped a close game to Dyersburg State to start the day by a final score of 4-2 and then lost a 12-7 decision to the host team, Columbia State in the second game of the day. The Cougars finish the tournament with two up and two down and finish the season with a 38-18 mark.

The Chargers jumped on top with a pair of runs in the top of the second inning as a pair of popups lost in the sun helped the Chargers as Tim Eggerton singled in a pair of runs for a 2-0 lead.

The Cougars got those two runs back in the bottom of the second as Troy Zawadzki picked up a two-out single of his own to tie the game at 2-2.

Columbia seesawed back to the lead in the third on a single from Tony Allen and a bases loaded walk from Eggerton to take a 4-2 lead. The Chargers tacked on single runs in the fourth and the sixth and three more in the fifth on back to back doubles from Eggerton and Travis Garcia. The Cougars got three of those runs back in the bottom of the fourth on a two-run dinger by Jay Huffman and an RBI single from Cory Hilton to cut the lead to 9-5.

The Cougars sliced into the Charger lead with a pair of runs in the seventh as Justin Ridenour plated a run with a groundout and Lance Rorex followed with an RBI single to cut the lead to 9-7.

 The comeback would end right there though for the Cougars as the Chargers put two more runs on the board in the eighth and a single talley in the ninth while Brock Glass came out of the Columbia bullpen in the eighth to toss two innings of shutout relief to nail down the win. Ferrell took the loss for the Cougars while Steve Dodson tossed seven innings for the Chargers to get the win.

In the first game of the day, the Cougars and Dyersburg State picked up where they had left off after the rains had halfted play on Wednesday in the second inning. Chris White hit a solo homer in the first for Dyersburg while the Cougars scored their run on a pair of walks, an error and an RBI grounder from Cody Hooper.

Cleveland State took the lead on Thursday as play resumed, on a two-out double by Hooper in the top of the second, scoring Cory Hilton who had walked for a 2-1 Cougar lead.

The score remained at 2-1 throughout the next several innings as the Cougar's Travis Tingle and Eagle starter, Johnathan Rhode took turns putting zeros on the board. The Eagles finally broke the ice in the bottom of the eighth, tying the game with a run crossing on a double play. With two outs and a runner on base, Chase Pilkington took an outside fastball from Cougar relief pitcher, Chad Fromm and deposited it over the right field fence for a two-run homer and a 4-2 Eagle lead.

Cody Ferrell led off the top of the ninth with a double off the wall for the Cougars, but Rhode finished what he started by striking out two of the last three Cougars he faced to secure the win.

Fromm suffered the loss for the Cougars while Rhode went the distance to pick up the win.