POPLAR BLUFF – The Ozark Foothills Conference baseball tournament kicked off on Monday at Three Rivers College and already had some exciting contests to set up the semifinals on Tuesday.

The best game of the day came first as No. 6 seed Naylor upset No. 3 East Carter 3-1. The Eagles broke through in the fourth with a 2-run single by Caleb Moore to make it 2-0 and added one more run in the fifth on a single by Nathan Lunsford.

"We haven't been playing good ball and haven't been playing as a team this fall," Naylor coach Edward Moore said. "But the atmosphere at practice has changed lately and the seniors have bought in and set the pace."

The Redbirds tried to rally in the sixth with two on and one out and Brenden Reynolds prevented the shutout with an RBI single, but after that, Naylor was able to get out of it with a strikeout and a line out. East Carter again had a couple of runners on with two outs in the bottom of the seventh, but a strikeout would end the ballgame.

"That's how baseball is," East Carter coach Ethan Boyer said. "You never know what's going to happen in a tournament. Naylor just showed up to play (Monday). We'll have to learn from it and use it as fuel for the spring season."

Naylor will move on to play No. 2 Greenville, who handled No. 7 Clearwater 10-0 in the second game of the day. Will Friley set the tone with a mammoth 2-run homer in the first inning as he drove in five RBI's while the Greenville pitching staff allowed only two hits.

"We came in ready to play," Greenville coach Benji Stahl said. "We had to come in and take care of business. We wanted the one seed and we messed up and let Twin Rivers beat us one time so we're ready to go the rest of the tournament."

For Clearwater, all the Tigers can do is look forward to the spring season.

"We have improved a lot and that was the goal in the fall to be better today than we were at the beginning of the season," Clearwater coach Cole Sheets said.

No. 4 Neelyville and No. 5 Doniphan wrapped up the first round as they battled to face top-seeded Twin Rivers in the semis. Doniphan proved to be the better ball club edging out Neelyville 9-3.

"We have a belt that we give to the MVP of the game," Doniphan coach Dalton Pennington said. "It was hard to decide who to give it to (Monday). Do we give it to Keaton Kepley for pitching his guts out on a sore hip? Do we give it to the defense for making plays behind him? Do we give it to the offense because everyone in the lineup chipped in one way or another? It was a total team effort (Monday)."

Kepley tossed all seven innings giving up three earned on four hits. As a team, the Dons recorded 10 hits.

Neelyville didn't go down without a fight as the Tigers cut the Doniphan lead to 5-2 with an RBI groundout by Elijah Dobbins followed by an RBI single from Casen Stephens.

"That's something we've struggled with all season," Neelyville coach Gary Dubar said. "We always seem to wait until the last minute to get something going. I hope we can pick up a few more guys for the spring and be a little more competitive."

With Twin Rivers looming in the semifinals, Pennington is hoping for a repeat performance of what he saw in the first round.

"We have to bring the same effort (Tuesday)," Pennington said. "We'll have J.D. Burton on the mound and we've got a lot of a faith in him so I think we have a chance with our ace and if we have the same offensive showing we had (Monday)."

In the other semifinal between Naylor and Greenville, the Eagles will be looking for a second upset in as many days.

"We've been wanting to face Greenville again, they shut us out the first game of the season," Moore said. "If we play like we did (Monday), then we'll have a chance."

The first semifinal between Greenville and Naylor will start at 1 p.m. followed by the second semifinal between Twin Rivers and Doniphan. The OFC Tournament will conclude Thursday with the third place game at 1 p.m. followed by the championship game.