River rightfielder Carson Makris races in to catch a fly ball during the first inning of Friday’s OVAC Class 2A semifinal at Toronto.

TORONTO — River wasted no time in showing perennial OVAC 2A power and top-seeded Toronto that it had come to the Knights Baseball Complex to play Friday afternoon.

Lead-off hitter Lucas Dennis greeted Toronto ace Dom Bouscher with a lined single to left. He stole second, moved to third on a passed ball and then scored on a ground out by Pilot sophomore Peyton Blue.

The tone was officially set and River didn’t take its foot off the gas en route to a 9-3 victory. The Pilots denied the Red Knights a chance at a repeat and will play for their first title since 2003 against Steubenville Catholic Central, which took out Wheeling Central in the other 2A semifinal.

“We got off to a good start offensively and we were very aggressive on the bases,” a satisfied River head coach Tim Blue said. “We put a lot of pressure on them, which was our game plan coming. We wanted to make them make plays.”

The Pilots (9-8) plan worked quite well. Toronto, which is ranked No. 1 in the Division IV state poll, committed six errors. On top of that, the Red Knights pitching staff walked three and plunked a guy.

“Give credit to River because they came ready to play,” Toronto head coach Brian Perkins said. “We had as many hits as we did errors, which is not a good recipe. They capitalized on our mistakes and they just beat us.”

With a 1-0 lead, River seemed to become even more aggressive on the base paths and in its approach at the plate.

In the second, River struck for three more runs. Colton Cisar produced a one-out single and then came around to score on a fielder’s choice in which nary an out was recorded and compounding matters for Toronto the ball was thrown away.

Hunter Nething and River Thompson made it a 4-0 reading when they scored a laced single to left center by senior Brody Lollathin.

The Pilots then added another three spot in the fourth to take full control of the game. Dennis led off with his second single of the game and Lollathin induced a walk before Blue ripped a single to center, scoring Dennis and chasing Bouscher.

Aiden Filby recorded a ground out to calm matters down. Max Castro then singled and Cisar grounded into a fielder’s choice, but beat the throw to keep the inning alive.

The aggressive base running paid dividends once again. Cisar broke for second base, while Filby was on the rubber. He stepped off and threw to second, but the throw was high and sailed into the outfield, allowing Blue to score.

“We kept our nose to the grindstone throughout the game,” Blue said. “Our base coaches were very aggressive, which I think helped us with three or four plays to move runners up and allowed us to score a couple of extra runs because of it.”

Toronto wasn’t finished just yet. The Red Knights struck for three runs against Cisar, who came on in relief of freshman Kaden Hunt in the third.

The first four hitters of the inning reached against Cisar. Filby led off with a single before Blake Close singled to center and the ball was misplayed, allowing both runners to move up an additional 90 feet. Nate Brownfield followed with a RBI hit and Andy Silverton followed with a two-run double.

However, Cisar settled down. He proceeded to get a pop up on the field and then back-to-back fly outs to center to thwart the rally. All told, Dennis — the Pilot centerfielder — recorded seven putouts in the game.

“I don’t want to take away the credit from Coach Blue and his team because they showed up and out-performed us,” Perkins said. “We stunk today and they played really well. The bottom line is we had too many fly balls and too many errors.”

After escaping that jam, Cisar proceeded to allow just one base runner the rest of the game, which was a harmless single.

“Colton Cisar threw one heck of a ball game and looked like Mariano Rivera,” Blue smiled. “He did a great job pitching.”

River added two more insurance tallies in the sixth. Cisar drove in Blue, who had singled to lead off the frame, and Hunter Nething drove in Castro, who had also singled on a groundout to short.

We took a long batting practice (on Thursday) and working on mechanics and the kids obviously took it to heart and did a heck of a job,” Blue said.

River will play host to Frontier on Monday.

Toronto, which is now 13-4, plays host to Indian Creek on Monday.