West Limestone head baseball coach Mike Bishop has seen so many close decisions go against the Wildcats, he thought another one might be coming Saturday in the opening round of the Limestone County Tournament at Clements High.

But his players proved him wrong.

Justin Meeks singled and scored on an error in the eighth inning, and Colton Hill tossed seven strong innings of relief to lift the Wildcats to a 4-3 win over Ardmore.

“We’ve lost too many games by one run, and I told the kids I thought we’d find a way to lose again, but we didn’t,” Bishop said. “They pulled together and played as a team. That’s the way you win.”

In Saturday’s second game, Clements jump on East Limetone for a 15-5, five-inning win.

The Colts will face Tanner in the semifinals on Thursday at 4:30 p.m. West meets Elkmont in Thursday’s second game at 6:30 p.m. Both games are schedule for Clements.

Before that, however, the Wildcats have some other business to take care of.

West Limestone plays host to Lauderdale County in the opening game of a two-game Class 3A, Area 14 series on Monday at 4:30. The Wildcats visit the Tigers the following day.

West Limestone (2-4 in area) needs the sweep the Tigers (currently 4-2) in those two games, and hope that Colbert County (2-4) can sweep its two games with Rogers (3-3).

“If we could sweep them, we’d both be 4-4,” Bishop said. “Then we also need Colbert County to sweep Rogers. If they split we’re out, because Rogers has beaten us twice.”

The Tigers committed two errors to lead to West Limestone’s eighth-inning run.

After Meeks led off with a single, Jeremy White reached first base on an error.

One out later, Darius Smith’s ground out moved both runners up, and Meeks scored when Jimmy Campbell reached on an error.

Ardmore committed four errors in the game, leading to three unearned runs by the Wildcats.

Smith singles and scored on Hill’s two-run single in the third inning. Campbell, who reached on an error, also scored.

The Wildcats scored a single run in the fourth, when Smith reached on an error with two outs and scored on Blake Moffatt’s double. Moffatt led the Wildcats with three hits.

“That’s baseball,” Ardmore head coach Lee Walker said. “You’re going to make mistakes, and you’ve got to be able to overcome it at the plate.”

The Tigers never could.

Ardmore had just five hits, including a pair of opposite field doubles by Charlie Deffenbaugh. Deffenbaugh’s second double, bounced over the left-field fence, with two outs and Eric Atchley at first in the eighth inning. Atchley likely would have scored if the ball had stayed in play, but he had to go back to third.

Ryan Wheeler got Matt Smith to fly out to end the game.

“If you constantly pitched away, you’ve got to make an effort to hit the ball away,” Walker said. “If you can’t do that, then you’re going to struggle.

“Charlie did that, and he wound up with two doubles to right field. That’s a guy who pulls a lot of pitches, and today he went the other way.”

Hill came on in relief after Meeks walked the first two Ardmore hitters of the game.

Hill ended up hurling 7 2/3 innings, allowing four hits and three runs. He struck out seven and walked one.

Wheeler gave up Deffenbaugh’s double and a walk to Kyle Smith to load the bases, but he got Matt Smith to fly out for the last out of the game.

“I thought that Colton Hill came in and did a great job for them,” Walker said. “He came in and pretty well just took care of business from the first inning on.

“Clay (Wales) pitched well enough to win, I think.”

Clements 15, East Limestoen 5

Josh Easton and Ryan Griffin each had a a pair of doubles among three hits to lead the Colts into the tournament semifinals.

Clements (12-9) jumped on East for four first-inning runs. East tied the game with four in the third inning, but the Colts came back with seven in the third and four more in the fourth.

Clements ended the game with one out in the fifth inning.

Matthew Moore added two hits, including a home run for Clements. Titus Wright, Dakota Shaw and Chris Kelley had two hits each.

Moore got the win on the mound, allowing five hits in five innings and striking out three.

Hayden Scott had two singles for East Limestone. Clay Bailey belted a home run.