The Westminster Blue Jays avoided elimination Friday by defeating the Greenville Panthers 3-2 in the SLIAC Tournament at CarShield Field in O'Fallon.
Earlier Friday, the top-seeded Webster Gorloks defeated the fourth-seeded Blue Jays 9-2 at Clayton High School to set up an elimination game for Westminster.
A leadoff walk for Coltin Green in the fifth inning against fifth-seeded Greenville helped set Westminster up to take the lead.
Parker Schnieders hit a 3-0 pitch to right field for a double and Bryce McKinnon singled to left field to score Green, tying it at 2.
Schnieders crossed the plate on a Steven Diaz flyout to left field.
Greenville scored two runs in the first inning and Westminster cut it to 2-1 after Logan Thompson doubled to center field to score Diaz.
Greenville pitcher Luke Fleener limited Westminster to four hits in 7 innings on the mound. He allowed three runs, struck out three, walked two and hit a batter.
Trent Morrow got the victory for the Blue Jays with a complete-game effort, allowing two runs on four hits with four strikeouts and a hit batter.
Westminster scored both its runs against Webster in the seventh inning. Schnieders doubled in Hayden Hirschvogel and McKinnon singled to score Hunter Mulholland.
Schnieders finished with a single and a double, while Derek Shikles singled twice.
Webster used four pitchers to defeat Westminster, including Matt Mulhearn's six shutout innings. Mulhearn struck out 10 and walked none.
Chase Holder took the loss for the Blue Jays, allowing nine runs on 13 hits and two walks in 4 innings.
Westminster and Webster will face each other again at 1:30 p.m. today at CarShield Field. Westminster needs two wins to advance to the championship series.