PIEDMONT -- The Neelyville baseball team perfected two-out hitting and played through the rain to get back to the Ozark Foothills Conference Tournament championship game Tuesday.
The top-seeded Tigers scored all of their runs with two outs, including a momentous sixth inning, to beat Twin Rivers 5-2 and return to the title game for the third time in five seasons.
Neelyville (17-7) will go for its first conference championship since 2013 against second-seeded East Carter at 6 p.m. Thursday.
"That's what it takes to win ballgames like that, especially when they've got a good pitcher on the mound," Neelyville coach Tyler Thompson said. "It's been a week since we've played a game, so I thought overall we did a good job at the plate for not seeing live pitching for that long."
Neelyville finished with just five hits, the biggest of which came during the game-changing third and sixth innings.
Tied at 1-1, Twin Rivers (8-13) had the Tigers down to their final out of the third inning with Chaney Trout standing on second after he had walked and advanced on a passed ball. Wyatt Moon hit a 1-0 pitch up the middle to give his team a 2-1 lead and keep the inning alive.
Three pitches later, Carter Petty stroked a base hit into left-center field to drive in another run.
"They're lineup is tough and there's not really any break," Twin Rivers coach Jared Stockton said. "It seemed like they were coming up with hits in the hole that we just couldn't get to to get out of innings."
Twin Rivers responded with a run in the top of the sixth as Tanner Ledbetter reached on an infield single and advanced to third on an error. A groundout off the bat of Preston Martin two batters later allowed him to score and cut the deficit to 3-2.
Neelyville erased the run and took control when Moon came up with his second big hit of the day, a one-out double, and advanced to third on a groundout.
Matt Dollins was then hit by a pitch to put runners at the corners before Tyler Lowe smoked a line drive single up the middle to make it 4-2.
"He's been our most consistent hitter probably, but he's struggled the last couple games," Thompson said of Moon, who was 2 for 3. "It was good to see him get back on track."
Austin Ennis and Noah Burton drew back-to-back walks to drive in the second run of the inning and cap the scoring.
Zac Hardin opened the game with a double and scored two batters later as Jalen Hicks reached on a fielder's choice. But the Royals missed an opportunity to get more, stranding the bases loaded.
The Royals, who will take on No. 3 Clearwater in the third-place game at 4 p.m. Thursday, left six runners stranded in the loss.
"If we could've got one more hit there and broke it open a little bit, I think we would've had a little more momentum," Stockton said. "Our goal was to score in the first and we did, but it could've been more. You have to live with what you can get."
A big part of Neelyville wiggling out of that jam was Dollins, the Tigers starting pitcher. The right-hander got a strikeout and induced a groundball to survive the first inning. He finished with three strikeouts and allowed two runs, one earned, in six innings to get the win."
"That was huge and he's been solid for us all year like that," Thompson said of Dollins. "He had one bad inning in his last start where he got rattled a little bit, and today he did a much better job responding in those situations."
Neelyville's offense rewarded Dollins a half inning later as Trout, who pitched a scoreless seventh inning, led off with a triple and scored two batters later on a passed ball to tie the game.
"He does a great job for us and he made two or three great plays from all over the field as well," Thompson said of Trout, who will get the start against the Redbirds. "I thought defensively and offensively overall we did a great job as a team."