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MARYVILLE—Morristown kept its hopes alive for a state championship by building a big lead and then putting down a frantic final-inning rally by Columbia to take an 8-7 victory in the 9-10 Little League State Tournament.

Only four teams remain alive in the tourney. Lebanon and Lexington will play in the winners bracket at 6 p.m. on Tuesday and Morristown will take on Goodlettsville at 8 p.m. Goodlettsville defeated Clarksville National, 12-5, in Monday’s second game.

Morristown scored five times in the bottom of the first on Monday and took an 8-2 lead into the sixth and final inning before Columbia rallied to pull within one run before a grounder to shortstop ended it with the tying run on second base.

Tyson Busler, Carter Short and Grayson Cody all had two hits to lead the Morristown victory with one of Short’s safeties being a double.

Winning pitcher Jaxson Quilliams added a triple and Jaxson Draughn and Wyatt Watkins had singles for Morristown.

Columbia had only four hits in the game with Xavier Webster and Peyton Grooms getting two apiece.

Quilliams pitched the first 3.3 innings to get the mound decision over Landon Andrews who was knocked out in the first inning.

Quilliams gave up two hits and one run while walking one and striking out three. Lucas Justice and Watkins also pitched in relief for Morristown before Busler came on in the sixth to get the final two outs.

“I was proud of the boys for closing out the win,” said coach Cole Draughn. “We hit the ball well tonight and got a good lead.”

He added, “Jaxson pitched well then Justice got a couple of innings in for us. Wyatt got us an out in the sixth and then Tyson came on and finished it.

“We had a lot better effort tonight at the plate,” said the coach. “Their little starting pitcher didn’t throw the ball too hard and that sometimes throws your batters off and catches them on their front foot. But we moved up in the box a little bit and when we hit the ball we hit it pretty well.

“We got timely hits early in the game and put up enough runs to get the win.”

However Draughn said, “But we have to make the plays to where it wasn’t so close there at the end.”

In the Columbia sixth, the first two batters walked before a fielder’s choice at second produced the first out. The next man was hit by a pitch to load the bases and Busler struck out the next.

However, a throwing error scored two runs before Webster’s double cut the lead to 8-7.

But the next batter grounded to David Slagle at shortstop who threw him out at first to end it.

Hayes walked with one out in the bottom of the first and Busler had a single that combined with a throwing error to score the first run. After a line drive to third, Short singled in a run, Cody walked and Tanner Epps got on by an error.

Quilliams double across two runs to make it 5-0 and Columbia changed pitchers.

The losers got on the board in the second on two hits and a throwing error but Morristown added two more in the third when Cody had the only hit in the inning.

Columbia got its second run without a hit in the fourth, but Short doubled with two out in the Morristown fifth and scored on another hit by Cody to make it 8-2.

That turned out to be the winning run after the Columbia rally.