Walters State held off a late Columbia State comeback, producing a 7-6 victory to advance to Wednesday's 3 p.m. championship round of the NJCAA Region VII/TJCCAA Tournament at Dave Hall Field.
The Senators (43-14) will meet Volunteer State (35-17). The Pioneers must win twice to advance. The winner hosts the Georgia state champion, Young Harris (51-9), in a best of three playoff next week to determine a representative to the NJCAA World Series in Grand Junction, Colo.
Young Harris defeated South Georgia, 11-3, in its title game.
Surprising Columbia State (24-31) moved within one in the top of the ninth when Tyler Boshers bashed a leadoff homer over the left field fence.
Grant Nickell received a two-out walk before Zane Stone, the third Senators pitcher, forced his third groundout of the inning to record a one-inning save.
The Chargers entered the top of the eighth trailing by three when Miles Hartsfield and twin brother Mark Hartsfield stroked consecutive singles. With one out, Tyler Farrar doubled to rightcenter, scoring Miles but a relay throw home resulted in Mark being ruled out.
It appeared that the Charger arrived ahead of the ball but that catcher Jon Edmonds had his left leg blocking Hartsfield's sliding effort, and the Senator was able to then grab the relay throw from second baseman Zac Bowman and apply the tag to the blocked-off Columbia player.
Walters pitcher Cole Draughn fanned the next Charger before being greeted to lead off the ninth by the homer from Boshers. Draughn was then replaced by Stone.
Ben Wilshire, the third Columbia hurler, held the Senators without a run in the bottom of the eighth.
Walters had a 13-11 advantage in hits, with Bowman going 3-for-3 with two intentional walks. Bowman's three-run, full-count homer in the third inning gave the Senators a 4-3 lead.
C.J. Lee and Jason Gray also had three hits for the Senators.
Boshers was 2-for-3 and scored three times for Columbia. Zak Smith and both Hartsfields had two hits apiece for the Chargers. Andrew Gannon and Smith had two baggers.
Luke Lamm and Jason Lenard both pitched 3.1 innings before Wilshire took over for coach Jim Painter's gallant Chargers, who came on strong after a 10th-place finish during the TJCCAA campaign.
Volunteer St. 11
Motlow St. 10
The Pioneers outhit the Bucks, 16-12, but the key in the outcome were seven Motlow miscues leading to five unearned runs.
Vol grabbed an early 7-1 lead, but Motlow rallied for four runs in the top of the fifth. The Pioneers answered with three in their half of the frame, and the Bucks tallied two in the sixth to reduce the deficit to three, 10-7.
A Pioneer run in the seventh was the difference as Motlow, which stranded nine runners, scored three in the ninth.
Ahmir Watkins and Joel Lynch had three hits apiece, and Garrett Harp, Michael Richardson, Danny Pulley and Heath Puryear two apiece for the winners.
Chris Beatty pitched the first five innings to gain the win. David Strothman and Dustin Crabtree worked in relief, with Wesley Nolen being called on to get the save by retiring the two batters he faced.
Neylan Roberts, a freshman from Mt. Pleasant, had a double and a single in three trips in a relief role for Motlow. Carlo Rosairo provided a home run and a single. Matt Gray was 2-for-2, and Glenn Rogers also boomed a roundtripper.
Zach Gray hurled the first 2.2 innings and took the loss. Mike Moeller, Scott Miller and Nick Davis pitched in relief.