PIEDMONT -- East Carter put together an all-around game to open its Ozark Foothills Conference season.
The Redbirds got solid pitching, solid hitting and solid defense to beat Clearwater 8-3 on Thursday.
"Pitching I was very pleased with. We pounded the strike zone a little bit better than the game before. Hitting, I'm tickled to death with our hitting. Our hitting has come through a lot," East Carter coach Scott Henfling said. "We work more on defense than we do hitting, just work situations."
East Carter (2-2) jumped ahead 4-1 in the early innings. Clean-up hitter Jake Andrews had a two-run home run in the first inning, scoring Cody Hampton, who reached on a walk.
Eli Fuller opened the second with a single, Drew Asher walked with two outs, and Dalton Rudd drove them in with a hit to left field.
Clearwater pitcher Heath Ayers, who also singled and scored in the first inning, faced two over the minimum over the next three innings. He left in the sixth after giving up three straight hard hit line drives, two of them doubles, for two runs.
But before that, the Tigers stranded runners on base in each of the first four innings, including three in scoring position, and the bases loaded with one out in the third.
"We are just too antsy," Clearwater coach Cole Sheets said. "We get up there and we don't have a solid approach right now. I can make the excuse that this is only our second game, but we had all fall. We just get antsy and don't take advantage of the pitches that are given to us."
In the bottom of the third, Clearwater's best chance at a big inning, Ayers walked, Jesse Holmes was hit by a pitch and Trey Rivas drew another walk to load the bases.
That is when Andrews, East Carter's starting pitcher, was relieved by Asher.
Over 2 1/3 innings, Andrews allowed one hit, a single to Ayers to open the game, and four walks with one strikeout.
Asher got a strikeout and then a ground out to the shortstop to escape the inning. He got two more strikeouts in the fifth.
Leading 7-1 in the bottom of the sixth, Asher was pulled in favor of Cody Hampton. Elfrink said he was keeping each of his pitchers under 45 pitches with OFC games against Malden and Greenville scheduled for Saturday.
Andrews threw 43 pitches, Asher threw 45, and in closing the final 1 1/3 innings, Hampton threw 20 pitches and allowed two hits and a walk with no strikeouts.
Andrews singled and scored in the top of the seventh to give the Redbirds a seven run lead, and then the Tigers started to make the adjustments they'd been searching for all game.
Jorden Eaton opened the seventh with a walk, Holmes had an RBI double behind him and Rivas singled him in.
"It looked like we finally kept our head on the ball, saw it deep and tried to drive it up the middle," Sheets said.
Hampton retired three of the next four to finish the game.
Clearwater (1-1) stranded 11 runners in all.
"I don't think we took advantage of our situation, the opportunities that they gave us. We were out in front of everything. We didn't make any (adjustments) until that last inning," Sheets said. "We play this team enough. We know what they have. We just didn't wait back and drive the ball like we are capable of."