With one crazy, wacky inning the Malden Green Wave turned a back-and-forth battle for the MSHSAA Class 3 District 2 title into a humdrum coronation.
Malden had just three hits in a seven-run fourth inning to pull ahead for good and beat Doniphan 9-5 Tuesday at Roger Pattillo Field.
"A little bit of everything happened that inning," Malden coach Tim Harmon said.
Four walks, two hit batters, two throwing errors, two pitches to the backstop that led to runs and a balk -- all in the fourth inning --helped the Green Wave, who also stole home and had a runner score from second base on a ball hit back to the pitcher.
"We had that one bad inning that killed us," Dons coach Mayse Kelly said. "The fourth inning has been rough for us all year."
The Green Wave (22-5) will face Scott City (17-11) in the opening round of the playoffs Monday afternoon in a rematch of the 2015 sectional, an 8-6 win by the Rams.
"We're going to have to practice hard over the next few days and we're going to have to just do the best we can," Malden senior Ethan Bader said.
Bader and his senior teammates were freshmen when Malden last won the district and are looking forward to rematch and a chance at the program's first quarterfinal appearance in its fourth attempt.
"I don't know how to react, I just came out," said senior Dushawn Butler who joined the team for the first time this spring and put the Green Wave ahead for good in the fourth inning.
"Seemed like it worked out. I'm loving it," Butler added. "Wish I would have come out sooner."
While the Green Wave will make their third playoff appearance in eight years, Doniphan ended a 31-year drought by just reaching the district final. The Dons last won a title in 1986 then lost the following year 2-1 in the final against Dexter, which went on to place second at state.
Before this week, Doniphan had just four wins in district tournament play over the last nine years.
"They haven't been here in a long time," Kelly said. "We're young. We only have two seniors."
Sophomore pitchers Alex Littrell and Jake Eddington had not allowed a hit in the previous 12 1/3 innings as the Dons rallied to beat Twin Rivers with a walk-off win in 10 innings Saturday and no-hit second-seeded East Carter in Monday's semifinal.
Malden's first batter, Tye Miller, laced a liner to left field against Littrell and Triplett later had an RBI double that 1-hopped to the center-field wall for a 1-0 lead.
The Dons tied it in the top of the second on a two-out, bases-loaded walk when a full-count pitch got past the catcher. Gavin Bristow recovered in time to throw out a runner at the plate to end the inning.
"Coming out I didn't do as good as I was expecting," said Triplett who added he was throwing up earlier in the day.
"Head kind of spinning a little bit and this hot weather didn't help very much."
After escaping a two-on, one-out jam in the second with consecutive strikeouts, Triplett gave up a pair of run-scoring doubles in the fourth.
Derek Ferguson led off with a single and later scored when Chance Donaldson doubled to the left-field wall. Eddington then got a two-out double for a 3-2 Doniphan lead when he lined a full-count pitch to right field.
Shay Amoss led off the bottom of the fourth with a walk and Bader followed with a single. They moved to second and third on an errant pick-off throw before Dalton Lewis tied it with a double to the left-field gap.
Butler, Malden's No. 9 hitter, hit a slow roller in front of the mound but Littrell's throw home sailed over the catcher allowing the go-ahead run to score and Lewis to score from second base.
"That wasn't perfectly planned," Butler said. "I was just trying to put one in the gap like (coach) told me but it worked out perfectly."
Miller singled, stole second and scored on a pitch to the backstop a pitch after Butler scored the same way. Malden led 7-3 and the Dons had yet to get an out in the fourth.
With two outs, Malden drew two walks and had a batter hit to load the bases, ending Littrell's day. Bader drew a bases-loaded walk and Mason Brown stole home for a 9-3 lead.
The Dons made a second pitching change before a comebacker to the mound ended the inning.
"It gave me relief coming out to pitch the next inning," Triplett said. "Scoring seven runs (I was able to) gather myself back, calm down, come out and throw strikes."
Unfortunately, Triplett reached his pitch limit after only 4 2/3 innings. The lefty struck out six, walked six and allowed three runs on five hits. Bader gave up two runs in the sixth on two hits and a hit batter. He struck out two and pitched a perfect seventh.
Montana Buffington's two-run double cut Malden's lead to 9-5 but Bader struck out the next hitter on three pitches.
Both coaches felt the change in speeds kept the Dons off-balanced.
"The umpire made the comment that the pitch count is kind of turning it into slow pitch softball a little bit, here at the end everybody's got their slow tossers," Harmon said. "Give Bader credit, he came in there and threw strikes."
Donaldson didn't give up a hit over the final two innings on the mound for the Dons. He also had two hits and an RBI while Buffington was 2 for 4.
Doniphan out-hit Malden 7-5 but stranded nine runners.
"We were just fortunate to win," Harmon said. "Hopefully we play a lot better Monday."
The final was moved from Greenville High School to Three Rivers College due to rain after Monday's semifinals.