By ROB TATE ~ DAR Sports Writer

The Neelyville Tigers made sure right off the bat that they weren't going to be upset in the first round of the Ozark Foothills Conference Tournament like they were as a fifth seed last season against Doniphan.

Neelyville scored a run in every inning to take a 14-5 victory over East Carter, but at times, the Tigers were sloppy defensively as they committed four errors in the middle innings of the game.

The Tigers will take on the winner of Twin Rivers-Greenville game, which was suspended due to darkness. Rain overnight has postponed the tournament until Wednesday when the Bears and Royals will resume their game tied 3-3 in the fifth.

"The key to us is to throw strikes and make plays," Neelyville coach Justin Dobbins said. "Don't walk people, don't make errors. When we do that we compete with a lot of folks."

The Tigers hammered out 12 hits Monday led by designated hitter Curtis Hansen who was 3-for-4 with two doubles and two runs scored.

After going up 6-0, Neelyville started getting sloppy in the field and East Carter took advantage.

The Redbirds scored two runs if the fifth by advancing runners on wild pitches and an RBI by second basemen Levi McNeal.

After two more Neelyville runs in the fourth, East Carter took advantage of three Tiger errors to pull within three runs at 8-5. The Redbirds' Scott Crowley hit a solid double to score Nick Saffle. Two batters later Josh Louis hit in Crowley with an RBI single.

"We make errors, we open the doors for people to stay in the game and good teams will beat you when you do that," Crowley said. "It's just what it all come downs to."

Neelyville, however, didn't succumb to its mistakes as they scored six more runs in the next two innings to closeout East Carter's fall season.

The Redbirds stayed scrappy Monday afternoon and carried a little bit of momentum in after a solid victory over Naylor last week to close out the regular season.

East Carter coach Brock Crowley felt his team might of kept it closer despite walking too many batters.

"We had too many walks," Crowley said. " (Starting pitcher) Daniel (Stromat) usually throws strikes--we struggled a little bit today. We didn't play terrible defense but a times when we needed a diving body, we didn't have one."

Neelyville got solid pitching out of Austin Russom who struck out 11 batters including seven of the first nine he faced.

"Every walk he had, came after an error," Dobbins said of Russom. "When we kept his rhythm going and his momentum going he'd done well. Then we'd make an error and he'd walk a few guys. He kept the ball down, especially early. We've been working with him, his curveball was fair today. It's getting better."

SUSPENDED GAME: Due to the length of the opening game of the tournament, which Doniphan won in 10 innings, the final game was suspended due to darkness Monday at Raider Field.

The game, which didn't start until after 5:15 p.m., was stopped before the start of the top of the fifth inning with the scored tied 3-3 with Greenville coming up to bat.

Twin Rivers scored three runs in the first two innings, but Greenville pitcher Scott Limanen had left the Royals hitless in the third and fourth innings.

Cole McBroom and Kevin Kinney each scored a run in the first inning while Garrett Stockton came across the plate in the second inning after reaching base with a double.

Twin Rivers' Alan Shearer had allowed seven hits in the first four innings and struck out three.

Jacob Simmons and Scott Foster each have an RBI for the Bears. Simmons also scored a run in the fourth inning, as did Tyler Daugherty.

Earlier in the season, Twin Rivers beat Greenville 7-0, but the game was closer than what the score indicated.

The Bears trailed only by three runs entering the sixth inning.

The game was to be continued at 11 a.m. Tuesday, but was postponed because of heavy rain overnight and the forecast calling for more throughout the day.

There is a 30 percent chance of rain in the forecast for Wednesday.

Greenville head coach Jason Hill, who is host of this year's tournament, said that the games are to go on as scheduled Wednesday morning with the completion of Twin Rivers-Greenville game at 11 a.m. followed by Clearwater vs. Doniphan at noon and Neelyville playing the Twin Rivers-Greenville winner at 2:30.