ZANESVILLE — Steubenville moved to within a game of repeating as Ohio Division II regional champions Friday with a convincing, 7-1, decision over error-prone Indian Valley in semifinal action at Gant Stadium.

Big Red (27-4) advances to today’s Athens/Zanesville regional final against the winner of the Athens-Marietta game. That game will be played at 2 p.m. today back in Zanesville.

“If we’re planning on getting back to Columbus and the state tournament, we had better play a lot better than we did today,” veteran Steubenville head coach Fred Heatherington said. “We didn’t play real well, but we won. Maybe a nine day layoff had something to do with it, I don’t know.”

Big Red scored one run in the bottom of the first, added two in the second and tacked on three in the third for a commanding 6-1 advantage. However, the Jefferson Countians could only muster three hits in those frames, but took advantage of a trio of errors by the Braves (18-10) and a handful walks.

Alec Taylor singled home a pair of runs in the second to give winning pitcher Nicky Zorne some breathing room. Gino Pierro’s RBI single and a throwing error accounted for three runs in the third. Carlo Biasi’s run-scoring groundout capped the scoring in the fourth.

“We had some timely hits, but not enough of them,” Heatherington said.

Zorne improved to 9-0 on the hill with seven strikeouts and six walks in 5-plus innings. Ryan Neely worked out of a jam in the sixth and breezed through the seventh.

Zorne and Michael Pierro each singled twice. Nick Scott clubbed a double.

Steubenville defeated Indian Valley in last year’s district final en route to the state tournament. Big Red will be seeking its seventh regional crown.