Neelyville first baseman Zach Talbott gets a throw for an out Tuesday in a win over Greenville. (Alex Abate/DAR) [Click to enlarge]

By ALEX ABATE ~ DAR Sports Writer

NEELYVILLE -- Before the Neelyville Tigers even started against Greenville on Tuesday afternoon, coach Justin Dobbins told his team to be focused and ready to play.

The Tigers listened to their new coach, scoring six runs in the bottom of the first and cruising to a 13-0 five-inning OFC win over the Bears.

"We have been talking about intensity," Dobbins said. "This bunch here, a lot of what we need to get better at is mental just as much as it is physical, getting ourself prepared to play from the get-go."

The Tigers are now 4-1 on the fall season after being eliminated by Clearwater in the district tournament last spring.

"We are just trying to be more disciplined is a lot of it," Dobbins said. "Discipline and they are getting where they play hard. We are sprinting balls out, even slow ground balls, we sprint them to first. Just all those little things."

Sheldon Edmundson got the win on the mound for the Tigers going all five innings while Tyler Dougherty earned the loss for the Bears.

After a groundout, Edmundson started the Tigers' first with a single up the middle. Mitchell Dennis followed with a single to put runners on first and second. Austin Russom got the scoring going as he ripped a double to left field that scored Edmundson. After Josh Norden reached to load the bases, Zach Talbott got an RBI as he was hit by a pitch and Dustin Spencer singled to make it 3-0.

After a Jordan Thomas sacrifice fly made it 4-0, Curtis Hanson singled in a run and Griffin singled off new Greenville pitcher Scott Foster to give the Tigers their sixth run of the frame. we " hadn't hit our the ball game real hard yet," Dobbins said. "Today, we come out and put the barrel on the baseball some."

The Bears got the bases loaded in the second inning but couldn't plate any runs and Neelyville scored three more in the second to go up 8-0.

"That could have been a tilt, but, I don't know, we didn't come out ready to play today," Greenville coach Jason Hill said. "That is tough."

The Tigers added five more runs in the third to back a solid performance on the mound by Edmundson. He finished the game with eight strikeouts while giving up just two hits.

"Sheldon has got pretty good stuff but he has got to learn to spot it up," Dobbins said. "He missed a lot of last year at Poplar Bluff and he has got a good curveball and changeup. Right now, in his first two starts, he has had trouble locating them and throwing them for strikes when he needs to."

After the Tigers scored their final run of the contest, Hill pulled all his position players from the field and replaced them with bench guys for the final few innings.

"I have got 20 guys over here, 10-12 guys in the dugout that are just itching to play, they can't wait," Hill said. "If we are not going to come out ready, I have got a lot of young guys that are ready to play, they are just waiting for their moment to show me something. It was a statement, but hopefully it got through to them and we'll come out ready to play next time."

Even in the loss, the Bears are 3-2 on the fall season and there are many more games, Hill emphasized.

"We have got a good enough group of older kids, younger kids, I think this will be something they can build off of," Hill said. "Hopefully it won't happen again."