ST. CLAIRSVILLE’S Hunter Hoffman works to the plate Tuesday during a Division II tournament game against River View at Memorial Park. The lefty allowed just three hits in a 3-0 Red Devils victory.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE – Don’t look now, but the St. Clairsville baseball team is finding its groove.

After a rough patch in April, the Red Devils have caught fire basically since falling in the semifinals of the OVAC Tournament.

The roll continued Tuesday afternoon at sun-drenched Memorial Park in the opening round of the Division II Eastern District Tournament where the Red Devils were solid in all three phases of the game and posted a 3-0 victory against River View.

“I know it’s cliche and coach speak, but we’ve been taking each game one at a time and that has to continue to be the mindset,” Sliva said. “We’ll try to find some games this week and get ready for Monday and try to get ’em.”

Monday is when the district semifinal will be held at a site to be announced today by the Eastern District Board. The Red Devils (16-6) will take on Meadowbrook, which took out Philo, 5-4.

St. Clairsville used some two-out lightning to stake sophomore ace Hunter Hoffman to a 1-0 lead after one.

Sophomore Mason Myers drew the first of six walks that Black Bears pitching issued and he raced all the way around from first on a double by senior Joey Balgo.

Hoffman proceeded to sit River View down in order in the top of the second and then watched as his offense added some more runs.

Zach Vickers drew a walk and senior Logan Shields dropped down a sacrifice bunt. After a wild pitch allowed Vickers to advance 90 feet, senior Jaren Starks singled home the second run.

Starks came around to score when sophomore Braylen Blomquist doubled.

“We did just enough (offensively),” Sliva said.

“Their (pitcher) did a nice job of settling in and we had some good at-bats, but we had a tough time stringing anything together. We put it on cruise control a little bit, but give credit to River View because their guy pitched well.”

The three runs were more than plenty with the way Hoffman was dealing.

The talented southpaw, who threw some 80 pitches in the complete-game masterpiece, retired River View in order in the second, third and fourth innings. He pitched around his lone walk in the fifth and a two-out double in the sixth.

In the seventh, Hoffman found himself in a minor jam.

After recording the first two outs of the inning with ease, he watched as the Black Bears doubled to the fence and then looped a single.

Unflappable on the bump, Hoffman came back to record his fifth strikeout of the game to send the Devils to the district.

“Hunter pitched well and we did a really nice job behind him,” Sliva said. “We were able to hold them and keep them at bay.”

The Red Devils played error free in the field.