GREENVILLE --Down five runs with four innings left, Malden started its comeback with a big blast and finished it off with a bloop hit Monday.
Shay Amoss provided the game-winner with an opposite-field single after the Green Wave loaded the bases with one out, beating Clearwater 7-6 in the MSHSAA Class 3 District 2 semifinal.
"It wasn't pretty but it got the job done," Malden coach Tim Harmon said.
Gavin Bristow started the comeback with a home run leading off the fourth inning and Malden tied it with a four-run fifth while escaping jams in each of the final three innings.
Malden (21-5) will take on Doniphan (12-9) for the championship at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Greenville High School. The Green Wave, who lost to Twin Rivers 12-6 in the final last year, are looking for their first title since 2015. The Dons' last title came in 1986.
"What a game," Harmon said. "It tells you what kind of character we've got really."
Clearwater (16-6) took a 6-1 lead in the fourth but left the bases loaded in the fifth when Mason Brown got a strikeout to keep it a four-run game.
Dushawn Butler, Malden's No. 9 hitter, opened the fifth with a double and scored on Dee Triplett's one-out single.
Brown provided the biggest hit with a two-out, two-run triple into the right-field gap that cut Clearwater's lead to 6-5.
Amoss drew a walk on a full count then stole second base. The catcher's throw, which was meant to be cut off by the pitcher, went to second base and Brown scored on the delayed double steal.
"We should have just kept piling on," Clearwater coach Cole Sheets said.
The Tigers took advantage of Malden errors to score their first three runs. Gage Keller's RBI single in the second broke a scoreless tie after an error started the inning. A throwing error after a walk to start the third led to another go-ahead run on Jesse Holmes' double. Holmes scored on a throwing error as he stole third after a pitch in the dirt for a 3-1 lead.
An error started Clearwater's fourth and Keller followed with a double before another error allowed a run to score.
"That's our goal," Sheets said. "You put the ball in play in high school, people are going to make mistakes."
Tanner Wilkins hit a two-run double to the right-field wall for a 6-1 lead but he was thrown out trying for a triple.
It was the final hit of the day for the Tigers who stranded seven runners over the final three innings and had another picked off.
Brown took over for starter Tye Miller and struck out six in four innings while walking six and hitting two batters. He got out of a bases-loaded jam in the fifth with a strikeout but faced a one-out, bases-loaded jam in the sixth.
Bristow, Malden's catcher, picked off a runner at first for the second out before Brown got a strikeout to end the inning.
In the seventh, Brown got a strikeout and a grounder to his shortstop after putting two on with one out in a tied game.
"Hats off to Mason Brown," Harmon said. "He created a lot of bad stuff for himself but for the most part helped himself."
Dalton Lewis was hit by a pitch to start the bottom of the seventh but was erased on a fielder's choice. Bristow then singled to left field and the runners moved up to second and third on an outfield error. An intentional walk of Brown loaded the bases for Amoss, who tied the game at 1-all in the second with an RBI groundout.
Holmes, who struck out five, had reached his pitch limit and was on his last batter.
"We were looking to hit early (in the count)," Harmon said. "(Holmes) had a decent curveball when he got ahead in the count, forced to swing at pitches out of the strike zone."