PIEDMONT -- It looked like the Tigers were going to run-rule Mountain View Liberty in three innings, they didn't.
Clearwater ultimately won 15-5 in five innings in the MSHSAA Class 1 District 5 semifinals, but needed a perfect throw from center field to avoid going into the sixth.
"I think they kind of settled down. When you get up 12-1, it is hard to maintain focus like that, especially with high school kids. Ultimately I said let's play like it's 0-0 because that letdown is there," Clearwater coach Shannon England said. "That first inning, we just come out, we were focused and ready to go ... I didn't think we hit the ball real well yesterday, but I thought he we hit the ball well today. I was super pleased with that. We kind of missed some pitches later in the game where we popped some balls up, but that first"
The Tigers scored 12 runs in the bottom of the first inning after bringing 14 batters to the plate. The first six batters of the game reached and scored. Mountain View committed two errors along the way while Brittany Adams, Tabbie Carroll, Makenna Black and Halle Gooch had RBI singles and Rachel Rowold had a two-run double in her first at bat and a three-run double in her second.
Cheyanne Burton, Gooch, Adams and Rowold all scored twice in the inning, but with a dominant lead the Tigers took their foot off the gas.
They scored another three runs in the second inning and needed a solitary run in the bottom of the third to end the game.
Adams and Rowold singled to start the third and Amy Holmes walked to load the bases with one out.
Emilee Chitwood then hit a comebacker that turned into a 1-5 double play.
Mountain View scored three in the fourth and one more in the top of the fifth, cutting Clearwater's lead to 10.
With a runner on second, Adams scooped up a single to center field and fired home in time for Burton to make the tag.
"We executed that play. We've got some good arms out there and that was a big play defensively. You want to end it then because you never know. They were hitting the ball, they were hitting some gaps. You give a team a little breathing space you never know what's going to happen if you have to play another inning," England said.
Rowold then got her eighth strikeout to end the game.
Rowold struck to the side in the third inning and allowed eight hits, two walk and two hit batters. At the plate, she was 3 for 3 and with five RBIs and two runs. Burton scored three times without getting a hit.
England said Rowold was showing some fatigue during the Ozark Foothills Conference Tournament two weeks prior after pitching most of the team's games. She was away from the team over the weekend for another school activity, giving her arm some rest. She then pitched one inning in Clearwater's 16-0 win over Summersville in the quarterfinals to knock some rust off.
"She looked good," England said. "Velocity was back, locating pitches, and she did a good job today. She really was reading the hitters. If they were going to swing at it up in the zone, that is where she was going to put it. She had good command and she wasn't erratic at all."