A seventh-inning rally fell just short as the Bossier Phillies lost to Tennessee champion Columbia 2-1 in the American Legion Baseball Mid-South Regional winners’ bracket finals Friday in Washington, Mo.
The Phillies will need to win three more games in the double-elimination tournament to successfully defend their title and advance to the World Series.
Bossier faces Mississippi champion Pontotoc in an elimination game Saturday at 9:30 a.m. The Phillies defeated Pontotoc 21-8 in the first round Wednesday.
Columbia plays host Washington, which has one loss, following the Bossier-Pontotoc game.
The winners play in the championship round at 11 a.m. Sunday.
If three teams have one loss after the Washington-Columbia game, Columbia gets the bye into a winner-take-all championship game.
The Phillies’ normally active bats went quiet against Columbia pitcher Cody Underwood, who will be a freshman at Lipscomb in Nashville.
Underwood took a no-hitter and a 2-0 lead into the seventh. He had allowed four baserunners on two walks and two hit-by-pitches.
Brock Laird broke up the no-hitter with a leadoff single in the top of the seventh. Abel Thetford followed with a double, scoring Laird.
Underwood struck out the next batter. Thetford then advanced to third on a wild pitch. But Underwood ended the game with two more strikeouts, giving him 10 for the game.
Bossier’s Easton Sanders also went the distance. He scattered six hits, struck out seven and walked three in six innings. Only one of Columbia’s runs was earned.