POPLAR BLUFF – The stage is set for the Ozark Foothills Conference baseball championship at Three Rivers College with defending champion Greenville taking their spot in the final defeating Naylor 13-0 and Doniphan upsetting top-seeded Twin Rivers 6-4.

The matchup between the Dons and the Royals proved to be the game of the tournament so far as Doniphan was able to hold off one of, if not the heavy favorite to win the OFC Championship.

"I'm super proud of our guys," Doniphan coach Dalton Pennington said. "J.D. (Burton) set the tone with the start, Ben (Killian) came in to get us out of a bases loaded jam and Garrett (Griffin) came in to end it. Without those two guys coming in relief, we might be looking at a different ending."

Burton earned the win as the starter for the Dons as he recorded seven strikeouts while giving up one earned in four and two-thirds innings. Burton was forced to give the ball over to the bullpen after loading up the bases in the fifth on three straight walks with two outs and some arm soreness from throwing 81 pitches. Killian was able to force Luke Hester to pop out to short to get out of the inning.

Not only was pitching and defense on point for the Dons, but the bats were going as well as Doniphan struck first with two runs in the first. Twin Rivers starter Bo Lilly didn't even make it out of the first as coach Chris Newman went to the bullpen with two outs in the inning.

"We flat out did not play our best (Tuesday)," Newman said. "We played really good baseball in the early part of the fall, but lately that's been tapering off and unfortunately it spilled into the conference tournament."

Even thought Twin Rivers had all of their arms available with the first round bye, it didn't seem to be a problem for Doniphan as they added one run in the third before the Royals made it a one-run game with two runs in their half of the third. Doniphan added two more runs in the fifth, but Twin Rivers was right there with them adding two runs of their own in the sixth before the Dons added a much needed insurance run in the seventh.

The Royals looked like they could rally back for a walk off in the bottom of the seventh with Jake Hester stroking a two-out double and Lilly stepped into the box as the tying run. He hit a high flyball to shallow center with centerfielder Maddox Baucom, Burton now playing second base and the shortstop Keaton Kepley colliding on the play. Baucom was able to come up with the ball, although shaken up from the collision and stayed down as his teammates mobbed him in celebration.

"He was a little banged up from the play," Pennington said. "Though I think he was trying to chicken out of the dog pile."

Earlier in the afternoon, Greenville was able to take care of Naylor via the 10-run mercy rule, but not without a little controversy thrown in.

As the Bears were scoring eight runs in the third, a Naylor fan was ejected for criticizing the umpires and yelling obscene language and a short time later, the Naylor coaching staff decided to protest the ballgame for an unrelated reason.

"We were noticing that the umpires were not using the two game balls we provided saying that they were a couple of years old and the ones Greenville provided were newer," Naylor coach Edward Moore said. "Our balls had the MSHSAA logo, but I don't think the protest will get anywhere. It would probably be a different story if it was a district tournament game."

As for Greenville, they're looking primed for a repeat OFC Championship as they keep rolling.

"We were hitting strikes," Greenville coach Benji Stahl said. "There's no doubt we're ready to play and it's that time of year where it's all or nothing."

The pitching staff of Talan McDaniel and Easton Evans combined for a one-hitter in the shutout. The Bears have not allowed a run so far in the OFC Tournament.

The OFC Championship game will be played at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday. Prior to that contest, Twin Rivers will face Naylor in the third place game.