ELIZABETHTON -- Finishing seventh in the conference standings, no one thought the West Greene Buffaloes would have played in Wednesday night's loser's bracket final game.

They were there, however, pitting their skills against the Happy Valley Warriors, another underdog team in the District 1-AA tournament.

In a battle of the two underdogs Wednesday night at Joe O'Brien field, the Warriors came out on top 11-1, ending the Buffs' Cinderella run.

Head coach Mark Bowles noted how proud he was of his team for coming so far.

"Everything started coming together for us, and we started to get a little confidence," he said. "In baseball, confidence plays a big part in success. We have been playing well and giving ourselves a chance. We had a good little run."

In the first inning the Buffs came out hot, with Jordan Davis doubling to left-center on the second pitch of the game. Following suite, Adrian Sauceman knocked a single to the same spot, scoring Davis. This, however, would be the Buffs' only run of the night.

"We played well against Unicoi County, and I was hoping that the momentum we built in that game had transferred to this one. It did, and we really came out strong," Bowles said.

The Warriors came out looking to match West Greene's early inning success, and found that success in the bat of Cody Hyder. Hyder singled to start the inning, and advanced to second on an outfield error.

Happy Valley's Tyler Blevins then moved Hyder to third on a sacrifice bunt, giving Jake Hodge on early opportunity. He captialized, busting a single through the infield, scoring Hyder.

The Buffs pulled out a double play on the next at-bat to end the early-inning threat.

Both teams had their opportunities in the second inning, but neither saw the fruits of the labor, going scoreless in the second.

Happy Valley's Ethan Fleenor finally found his groove from the mound, and started to give the Buffs a little trouble. After the first inning, West Greene could only manage two more hits off the Warrior's pitcher.

While the Buffs couldn't muster any more offense, Happy Valley managed a three-run third inning on two doubles and a couple errors, going up 4-1.

West Greene could never catch up from this point. Happy Valley scored six runs in the bottom of the sixth, bringing about the mercy rule, and winning the contest 11-1.

The Buffs end their season finishing third in the District 1-AA tournament.

"These boys were just a great bunch of guys," Bowles said. "They had one of the best work ethics and did everything the coaching staff asked them to do. The seniors on this squad also stepped up when they needed to. While it was not the season we expected at the beginning of the year, I'm still really proud of these guys."

WG AB R H HV AB R H

Davis cf 3 1 2 Hyder cf 3 3 2

S'ceman ss 2 0 1 Blevins ss 4 1 1

Ward c 3 0 0 Hodge rf 3 0 1

Lamb 1b 3 0 0 Miller dh 4 2 0

Lamb 2b 3 0 0 Sheets 1b 3 1 2

McC'my dh 3 0 0 B'field 2b 3 0 2

Hopson rf 0 0 0 Dykes c 4 0 0

C'pbell p 2 0 1 Fleenor p 3 2 1

McAmis lf 2 0 0 Howell 3b 0 0 0

Ricker rf 0 0 0 Palm 3b 3 2 1

Totals 21 1 4 Totals 30 11 10

2b Hits--WG: Davis (2) HV: Hyder, Sheets. LP: Campbell. WP: Fleenor

Score by innings:

West Greene 100 000 -- 1 4

Happy Valley 103 106 --11 10