The Tigers swept the Tiger Classic Tournament on Saturday, shutting out Highland 6-0 and Chatham Glenwood 4-3.

The Tigers opened the tournament Friday with a 1-0 win over Teutopolis.

On Saturday against the Bulldogs, the tigers scored their first run in the bottom of the first with an RBI from senior Joe Toscano. Senior catcher Dalton Wallace hit a homerun which brought in senior Joe Copeland, making the score 3-0.

In the third with the bases loaded, junior second baseman Logan Cromer hit a base run to bring in senior third baseman Max Ringering making it 4-0, and a ground out allowed scored Wallace to score to making it 5-0.

The final run was scored in the sixth. Sophomore center fielder Hayden Moore was hit by a pitch, which loaded the bases. Then junior Gavin Huebner scored on a passed ball, making it 6-0.

In the final inning, Highland had the bases loaded, but senior pitcher Grayson Slagle pulled it together to preserve the score, giving the Tigers the win.

“As a reliever, you never know when your going to get the call to go in but you have to get ready as soon as you can,” Slagle said. “You can’t think about the guys on base you just have to block the runners and just stay focused on the guy at the plate.

“I don’t think ahead. I just play the game pitch by pitch and make adjustments as I go. If you stress about closing out the game it’ll just make you pitch worse. It should feel like playing catch with the catcher.”

Slagle combined with senior pitchers Zac Crutchfield and Grant Schaefer managed to hold the Bulldogs to just one hit that game.

“We stepped our pitching up big time in this game,” Ringering said. “All around the defense dominated, we took good at bats and our defense was superb.”

The Tigers continued to play strong as they went into their second game of the day against Chatham Glenwood.

The Tigers took an early lead over the Titans scoring runs in the first and second innings.

Moore started off with double to the right, advanced to third on an off pitch and scored on senior Blake Burris’s ground out to first. In the second, Jacob Kitchen got hit and walked to first then senior Matt Stopka walked. Both advanced after another wild pitch. Evan Funkhouser, courtesy runner for Kitchen, scored when reached on a fielder’s choice, witch Stopka being thrown out at third, making it 2-0.

Glenwood scored three times in fifth inning to take the lead at 3-2, but the tigers took back the lead in the sixth starting off with a single form senior Josh Ohl, who went to second on Ringerings fielder’s choice. Copeland doubled home both Ohl and Ringering to make the final score 4-3.

“The game was somewhat of a sloppy game for us,” Ringering said. “We made a couple errors and didn’t hit as well, but when it came down to it we had some clutch hits to push us ahead. Copeland hitting a go ahead double to give us the lead against Chatham Glenwood gave us the win which was huge.”