NORTH AUGUSTA --- The playoff atmosphere that included balloons, body paint and homemade signs greeted North Augusta and Conway as they squared off Wednesday night in a South Carolina Class AAAA state playoff elimination game.

Fans cheered and booed after every pitch in a game that went down to the last at-bat. North Augusta stranded the potential tying run at third base in the final inning in a 4-3 loss.

Clay Altman silenced North Augusta with a compete-game, four-hitter to keep his team's hopes of a second consecutive state finals appearance alive.

The Yellow Jackets, who stranded five base runners over the final two innings, were hurt by a controversial call at first base in the last inning. But the Yellow Jackets could only blame themselves for the loss on a night when they went 2-for-10 with runners on base.

"As hitters, we didn't take advantage of their pitcher like I thought we should," North Augusta coach Vic Radcliff said. "We've got too many good hitters to let that happen. We've faced better pitching in our region this year."

Altman didn't overpower the Yellow Jackets but did keep them off balance with an effective change-up and curve. The sophomore hurler took a no-hitter into the fourth inning, but with two runners on thanks to an error and a hit batsman, North Augusta's Taylor Guerrieri broke up the no-hitter and gave the Jackets a 3-2 lead with a home run to left field.

"I knew I had to keep the ball down, and I was doing that," Altman said. "But I found out what would happen the hard way there."

North Augusta's lead lasted only a half inning. Conway's Colby Holmes and Josh Hardwick combined for back-to-back two-out singles to reclaim the lead in the fifth.

"I was anxious to see what our team was going to do after giving up the lead," Conway coach Anthony Carroll said. "Answering that three with a two was huge. That gave us all the momentum."

North Augusta's last chance came in the seventh when Evan Still led off with a single. After a sacrifice bunt moved pinch runner Lee Houston to second, Evan Darr appeared to beat out a grounder to second. Instead, Darr was called out and, after a Tripp Warrick walk, Taylor Rosier struck out to end the game.