Hits were at a premium and defense was, at best, shaky. The pitching, though, was what high school baseball coaches love to see as they near the postseason.
The guys on the mound were the easy headliners Wednesday at Hixson, and both overcame error-prone defenses in a 3-1 seven-inning game that took slightly more than 90 minutes.
"This, really, is the kind of game you like to play when you start getting close to the postseason," offered Brian Paris, coach of the winning South Pittsburg Pirates.
Assessed Hixson coach Colton Green:"You definitely like having close games at the end of the year where the guys have to make plays. We just didn't make enough defensively. We outhit them but just couldn't get (the runs) in."
Former pitchers Paris and Green and the rest of those on hand marveled at a pitchers' duel between the Pirates' Micah Genter, who improved to 4-2, and Wildcats ace Tanner Moylan.
Genter, one of the Pirates' starters in district games, limited the Wildcats to four hits, and only two Hixson baserunners got as far as second. Moylan, meanwhile, also went the distance and was working on a two-hitter after six innings.
"Micah did a great job," Paris said. "We didn't play defense behind him and we put ourselves in some situations, and Hixson's guy did a great job."
Each was fairly successful pitching around four errors. Genter allowed no earned runs and Moylan two.
"Tanner is good enough when you throw him out there - against anybody - that he's going to get you outs," Green said "but you have to play good defense behind him and you have to score more than one run."
Moylan's two earned runs were given up in the seventh, when he surrendered three of the five hits he allowed - after he came within two strikes of avoiding the South Pittsburg rally.
After retiring the first two Pirates, Drew Petty greeted him with a single and No. 9 hitter E.J. Cagle followed with a double. On a 1-1 count, Jess Morrison made up for some shaky play at shortstop with a run-scoring double to right.
"I challenged our guys in the seventh inning: 'Hey, let's play this game like a postseason game,'" Paris said. "We got three two-out hits in the seventh against a guy that's pretty good. I couldn't be more proud."
Genter gave up a two-out walk in the seventh before inducing a game-ending grounder.
Hixson had tied the game in the sixth. Garrett Layne reached on an error, was sacrificed to second and then came around to score on Tyler Weaver's single.
Despite their shaky effort in the field, the Pirates cut short Hixson opportunities in the first, third and fifth innings with double plays.
Both teams are in the midst of final tuneups for the postseason, which for most teams will begin late next week.
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him on Twitter @wardgossett.