CAMBRIDGE — Warm temperatures brought out the very best in John Glenn junior Sydney Marshall during Monday’s Division II district semifinal matchup with No. 10 seed Martins Ferry at Cambridge City Park.

That very best was tossing a five inning no hitter to lead the second seeded Lady Muskies on to Wednesday’s district title game with a 10-0 victory.

John Glenn now advances to take on number five seed Steubenville in Wednesday’s D-II district championship game at Buckeye Trail High School with first pitch slated for 5 p.m. In the night’s other district semifinal, Steubenville beat New Philadelphia by a 6-1 margin.

Marshall rang up 10 Ks and only allowed one baserunner in a dominating performance. That lone runner was Laci Zinn who reached on an error in the top of the fourth.

“I like playing in the warmer temperatures, it definitely helps me a whole lot,” Marshall explained. “I felt really good and loose, and it just feels amazing to get a no hitter. Especially in a tournament game that gets us back to the district championship game.”

“It feels good to be back, the third year in a row,” Marshall added. “We really want to get back to regionals. My defense just played great behind me. And we hit the ball amazing from the top to the bottom of the lineup, and that really helps.”

Junior Alivia Boothe got that offense going in the first inning off Martins Ferry starter Kelsi Gillespie. Following senior Hannah Bendle’s leadoff double, Boothe belted a long two run home run to give John Glenn the quick 2-0 advantage.

Bendle stayed red hot and again jumpstarted the Lady Muskies with another double in the second inning with two outs. Boothe then reached when her fly ball to right field was dropped, allowing Bendle to cross the plate for a 3-0 JG lead.

Boothe advanced to second base on the two base error on the play. Freshman Addi Babcock then stroked an RBI base hit to score Boothe for the 4-0 lead.

“To me tonight was just a total team win,” John Glenn head coach Steve Cowgill said. “Strong, strong pitching from Sydney in the circle, she had things rocking pretty good. Syd had real good movement on her pitches with control. We also had some timely hitting on our part, and we took advantage of some miscues in the field by Martins Ferry.”

“And we just kept plugging away for five innings and got the job done,” Cowgill continued. “And to me, that’s a sign of a team that’s after something. You have to have that mentally this time of the year, and our girls know that. And we now advance on to game three of our second season.”

John Glenn would add on, with a single run in the third on junior Arabella Birkhimer’s RBI base hit to extend the lead out to 5-0.

In the fifth frame, the Lady Muskies would close out the win with a five run rally to reach the 10 run mercy margin and improve to 22-3 on the year. Bendle was again was in the middle of the action with her third hit of the night, this time a two run single that capped the rally.

“That is a great team, we knew that coming into the game,” Martins Ferry head coach Jerry Magistro offered. “That’s why they are always seeded so high, they have a top level program. Have a lot of great players and one of them pitched just a great game tonight.”

“We could not get anything going against her,” Magistro added. “You just have to take your hat off to them, just a very, very good team. But proud of my girls, they were in there battling all night. We were just up against a very talented opponent tonight. But liked our effort our girls put forth all night.”

Bendle paced the 12 hit John Glenn attack with a pair of doubles, single and two RBIs, while Boothe homered, singled and added two RBIs. Babcock chipped in with a pair of base hits with an RBI, and Libby Brown singled twice. Birkhimer chipped in with a two run single for the winners.