It was sheer pandemonium as the Cougar players and fans celebrated a first-ever sectional championship victory. The 6-5  extra-inning win now sends the Cougars to the supersectional at Sauget's GMC Park on Monday. Their opponent will be Beardstown, who knocked-off Quincy Notre Dame in their sectional final, and game time is scheduled for 3:00 P.M. 

Things started out rather ugly, for two teams whose strengths are their defensive prowess, as they both committed several miscues to lead to some early unearned runs.

The Comets got on the scoreboard first, when they pushed a run across on a two-out wild pitch in the 2nd. The Cougars answered back in their half of the inning, when Brian Wodtka drew a lead-off walk, Nick Jones reached when the pitcher mishandled his sacrifice bunt attempt, and Matt Wegener loaded the bases with a perfect drag bunt down the 3rd-base line. Jeremy Chasteen then lined a single to left to score the first run and Tyler Burns followed with his single over the 3rd-base bag to score two more. Another run would score when the Comets' shortstop threw away an inning ending double play ball off the bat of Brock Adams and the Cougars took the lead 4-1.

Greenville chopped into the lead by scoring an unearned run in the 3rd on two more Cougar errors and another in the 5th on a walk and back-to-back singles to make it 4-3.

The Cougars upped their lead to 5-3 in the bottom half of the 5th on consecutive two-out singles by Jason Shirley, Kevin Wilkins, and Brian Wodtka.

Things remained that way until the top of the 7th and the Cougars, just two outs away from a victory, saw their lead go up in smoke when a single and a long two-run homer off the bat of Comet clean-up hitter Stefan Neece tied things up.

Starting pitcher Jeremy Chasteen quickly put out the fire and when the Cougars couldn't find a way to score in the bottom of the 7th, he hung tough and shutout the Comets in their half of the 8th.

The game-winning rally for the Cougars started when Nick Jones led off with sharp line-drive single to right-center. Spencer Patton, who replaced Matt Wegener when he severely injured his knee in a 6th inning baserunning mishap, laid down a perfectly placed sacrifice bunt and Jones moved up to second. Jones then advanced to third on a groundout by Chasteen, setting the stage for Hicks and his two-out heroics.

Chasteen picked-up his twelfth victory of the season as he scattered 9 hits and 3 earned runs in his 2 walk, 7 strikeout performance.

The Cougars reached the championship game in dominating fashion when they blasted the Carlinville Caveliers 11-1 in a six-inning semi-final contest.

They scored five times in the 2nd, four in the 4th, and two more in the 6th to end the game via the ten-run rule.

The big blows in the game came off the bats of Jason Shirley and Brock Adams. Shirley blasted a grand slam homer in the 2nd inning uprising and Adams drilled his two-run shot in the 4th. Kevin Wilkins and Jeremy Chasteen contributed to the cause with two hits apiece.

Starting pitcher Jeremy Chasteen worked the first four innings to get the win and Brian Wodtka came on in relief for the final two. The duo combined on a 4-hitter, allowing only one walk, while striking out five.