GREENVILLE -- All Twin Rivers had to do was get a win Tuesday on the road to secure the likely top seed in the Ozark Foothills Conference Tournament while Greenville was looking for the same result to make a stronger argument for the same spot.
Twin Rivers junior ace Ryan Nippe pitched his way to a complete-game shutout as the Royals won 6-0.
With the win, Twin Rivers is 6-0 in conference play for the second straight fall headed into Wednesday's seed meeting while Greenville drops to 4-2.
"We don't talk whole lot," Twin Rivers Denver Stuckey said of the scenarios of the OFC draw. "We'd mention it every once in awhile (that) Greenville is good and they think they can beat you.
"Greenville's got a real nice squad and we knew coming in on their home field that we were going to have to play a real good game."
Greenville coach Jason Hill said he was just hoping to get make his case with the Bears' only conference loss coming against East Carter entering the game.
"I still want to see us at the (No.) 2-(seed)," he said. "Obviously Twin Rivers is going to get the (No.) 1, they deserve that.
"It's been a crazy and tight conference this year."
The tournament starts Monday.
"Our goal is still to get that conference championship game and that goal is still there," Hill added.
Twin Rivers senior Kaleb Doyle got the Royals on the scoreboard almost immediately.
Batting second in the top of the first, Doyle smacked out a solo homer to deep left field.
"That was huge," Stuckey said. "We talk about it all the time that when you face the other team's best pitcher -- and we usually do -- if you can jump on him early that usually shakes their confidence a little bit."
Hill was pleased with how his pitching ace Scott Foster kept at it despite the deficit.
"That home run right there was a key hit from there obviously to get them rolling," Hill said. "I thought Scott still threw a decent game. He was right around 100 pitches and it seemed like he got stronger there through the fifth and sixth inning."
The Royals got to Foster in the top of third. Joe Foster and Chris Morse led off the inning with walks and both advanced to second and third on a passed ball.
Sophomore leadoff hitter Cade Lowe then stepped in a put the ball in the left-center gap to plate both runs.
With two outs, Greenville was about escape with no further damage but a throwing error by the short stop plated Doyle, who singled earlier in the inning, to make it 4-0.
Twin Rivers added its final two runs in the top of the fifth as Morse scored on a wild pitch and Nippe hit an RBI double.
"Twin Rivers did a good job of hitting Scotty," Hill said. "They laid off a lot of off-speed stuff and hit the fastballs on the nose."
On the mound, Nippe was efficient on 83 pitches. He allowed just three hits while striking out three. Nippe mostly worked on his change-up in the game according to Stuckey.
"He threw a couple (curveballs)," he said. "He's been working on his change-up and I'm noticing that it's gotten a lot better. We tried to throw it a lot early and it had success until made the adjustment."
Greenville's biggest threat came in the bottom of the third when they loaded the bases, including singles by Tim Hillis and Dakota Norden, but all three runners were stranded. Noah Stotts had the Bears' only other hit in the fifth inning.
"We just didn't pick up good hits when we needed them," Hill said. "We hit the ball in the air early. With these new bats, hitting the ball in the air is not going to win you many ball games."
The Bears should have been self-motivated to knock off Twin Rivers for a shot at the No. 1-seed coming into the game and their coach felt like they were.
"What I told the guys before the game was for a game like this there's nothing that I should say that should have to motivate them," Hill said. "They should be motivated for this ball game already. I felt like the motivation was there. We just didn't start hitting until late."
Stuckey felt like the Bears will be ready if the two teams should meet again next week.
"I guarantee Greenville is going to be anxious get another shot at us," Stuckey said. "We can't drop our guard."