Clearwater's Trey Hill steals second while Greenville second baseman Scott Foster awaits the throw Friday in Piedmont. Clearwater won 16-6 in the final game before the start of the Ozark Foothills Conference tournament Monday. (Rob Tate/DAR) [Click to enlarge]

By ROB TATE ~ DAR Sports Writer

PIEDMONT -- The Clearwater Tigers have a little bit of everything. But will it be enough to bring home the Ozark Foothills Conference tournament championship this week?

Clearwater has clearly been the top team in the conference during the regular season with its 6-0 conference record. Being the top team gives them the distinction of being the top-seed and they get the first-round bye, but that doesn't mean much in any type of tournament.

The Tigers certainly have a great shot at the trophy as their fall regular season speaks for itself. They enter Monday's tournament with an off day as the other six teams will fight to make the semifinals, which are set for Tuesday.

Even with a 16-3 overall record on the season, you won't find any of the Tigers' players or coach Joe McAlister taking in the action Monday at Three Rivers Community College. Instead, they will be back in Piedmont going through a light workout and keeping the focus on themselves and not their potential opponents.

"We'll have a short practice, get some batting practice in and go over some game plan, play some catch and go over different types of things," McAlister said. "It will be a light day."

The Tigers have enjoyed a lot of success with a younger roster. McAlister has enjoyed some solid pitching out of aces Logan Morris and Kendall Fay. The bats have been working out well and the team has played some good defense.

"We've had a really good fall season," McAlister said. "The boys have come out and played hard.

"We had an undefeated conference record so that automatically gives us confidence knowing that we've beat all the teams we will face," McAlister added.

Although the hitting has come on well as of late for the Tigers, McAlister felt as if the pitching and defense is what really has got the team where it is today.

Clearwater senior center fielder Kyle Randolph, who is in second season playing for Clearwater and formally played for Greenville, felt that the team benefits greatly from having the one day off to set up the semifinals with its two best pitchers in Morris and Fay.

"If we played three games, we'd have to use one more pitcher," Randolph said. "Saving our two top guys for two games puts less pressure on us."

McAlister is going to wait and see who they play first before setting the order of pitchers for the tournament. The Tigers will face the winner of the Naylor-Doniphan match up.

"They're both good teams," Randolph said. "We didn't play as well as we could have against Doniphan (earlier in the season). They're tougher than what we thought."

It was that Doniphan team last season that sent Clearwater home early from the tournament. Randolph felt that if they didn't leave so many runners in scoring position that day last fall, then maybe they would be the defending champions this year.

"Let's not get into that situation this year," Randolph said. "Let's put more runs in and execute earlier so we don't have to come down to (clutch situations with runners on base)," Randolph said. "We have a better team than last year." After Clearwater in the standings, there is no real clear team that could come out of nowhere.

With a win Thursday against East Carter, Twin Rivers upped its record to 4-2 in the conference but will enter as the No. 3 seed as the coaches voted prior to that contest. From there, Neelyville, Doniphan and Naylor are all 3-3 and Greenville and East Carter are set at the bottom, but even they each have a quality win or two.

"Each team has gotten better so it's gonna be a tough tournament," McAlister added. "We are gonna have to bring our 'A' game every game."

The Tigers' only losses of the season came on the second game of the year against South Pemiscot and then twice in a wood bat tournament at West Plains, including a loss against OFC rival Twin Rivers.

"These last couple games we've been playing a little lackadaisical," McAlister added. "We've been doing some things fundamentally that we need to improve on. We've got a few things to work on."

Come clutch time though, if Randolph could pick anyone to have up at the plate, he said he would take Kendall Fay any time.

"He's struggled a little bit here in the fall season but I'd want him at the plate," Randolph said.