Photo by Kim North Martins Ferry’s Ciernan Flanagan slides safely into second base with a double Monday night in Ohio Valley Baseball League action against Moundsville. The Marlins dropped an 8-6 decision to end their season. Moundsville second baseman Nick Leonard takes the throw.

GLEN DALE — For the second consecutive summer, No. 4 Moundsville has advanced in the Ohio Valley Baseball League tournament play-in game.

Monday night the opportunistic Expos (9-10) scored five runs with two outs and took advantage of a trio of errors in defeating No. 5 Martins Ferry, 8-6, on the John Marshall High School diamond.

Moundsville moves on to meet top-seeded Barton (12-6) in a best-of-3 semifinal series starting Wednesday at 6 p.m. on Henning Field inside Pramesa Park in Crescent. Game 2 will be Friday in Glen Dale at 6, with a third, and deciding, contest, if needed, on Sunday at 1 p.m. in Crescent.

The other semifinal pits No. 2 Wheeling and No. 3 Maynard, both 10-8. The Cardinals won the tiebreaker by winning three of the five regular-season contests. However, their home field isn’t available Wednesday for Game 1, so that best-of-3 format will begin on Firemen’s Field inside the Maynard Community Park at 6 with the Cardinals serving as the home team. Game 2 will also be in Maynard on Friday with the Indians the home squad. Game 3, if needed, will be announced.

“This was a good game tonight,” Moundsville player/manager John Santimarino said. “We have been hitting the ball, but it hasn’t been dropping for us. Tonight we hit two home runs and had a ball hit off the fence. We swung the bats well tonight.”

Santimarino got things started with a two-run double that just missed going over the fence in deep left-center with one out in the first. However, both runs were unearned as an error and a popup that fell for a hit in the infield did the damage.

Both teams dented the scoreboard once in the second for a 3-1 Moundsville lead, but the Marlins (5-13) grabbed a 4-3 advantage when Lex Wilhelm tripled down the line in right to cap a three-run top of the third.

The Expos drew even in the bottom of the inning with another unearned run and took the lead for good with a three-run fourth.

Bryce Rayl made it 5-4 with a two-out single to left and took second on the throw home.

Six pitches later, Russell Schwertfeger went deep over the fence in right as the margin grew to 7-4.

“That home run by Russ was huge,” Santimarino said. “That gave us some breathing room and we were able to finish it out.”

But not without the Marlins trying to rally.

Each team scored a run in the fifth and Martins Ferry drew to within 8-6 in the sixth when Dom Wallace homered off the foul pole in left leading off the sixth. Ryan Conrad followed with a double, but winning pitcher Isaac Hines retired the next three batters.

The Marlins ran themselves out of a couple of innings, including the top of the seventh when Malik Gummer reached on an error leading off but was thrown out trying for third on a bloop single by Dom Brncic.

Kaleb Baire lined a single to left, but Wilhelm’s drive down the first base line was snagged by Ricky Szeligo for the second out. The next batter struck out to end the game and the season for the Marlins.

“You can’t make errors and baserunning mistakes against good teams,” Martins Ferry manager Andy Sutak said. “We did both tonight and it cost us.”

Joey Dawson also homered for the expos, a solo shot in the second. Jake Stoner and Heath Hildreth evenly divided four singles, with Hildreth driving in a run.

Wallace also singled in addition to his homer. Conrad doubled twice and Kaleb Baire had two singles.