Photo by Kim North St. Clairsville lefty Roby Hanna works to the plate during Tuesday night’s Ohio Division V East 2 District semifinal against Sandy Valley. The sophomore allowed just one hit in a 4-1 Red Devils’ victory on the soggy artificial surface at the Junior Sports Complex.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — To make an elongated run through the Ohio high school baseball playoffs, a team needs two really good pitchers. As most fans know, St. Clairsville has senior righthander Brody Saunders who has carried the load for the Red Devils most of the campaign.

Tuesday night amidst a steady rainfall on the artificial surface at the Junior Sports Complex, sophomore southpaw Roby Hanna, as he has done all season, established himself as the Red Devils No. 2 guy on the mound.

With Saunders watching from the dugout, the lefty worked his magic against Sandy Valley in a 4-1 triumph during an Ohio Division V East 2 District semifinal tournament game. He only allowed one hit, striking out eight and walking three in a complete-game effort. He needed 99 pitches – of which 68 were strikes – and faced just four Cardinals over the minimum.

Veteran St. Clairsville head coach Tom Sliva raved about Hanna’s outing.

“I thought the whole team gutted it up. We knew they were a good baseball team. We scouted them several times,” Sliva said of the Cardinals. “They have some quality wins on their resume. We knew it would be tough.”

Trailing 1-0 as the 12th-seeded Cardinals (13-15) manufactured a run in the top of the fourth on a walk, a stolen base, a sacrifice bunt and a sacrifice fly, the top-seeded Red Devils (19-7) scored twice in the fifth and two more times in the sixth to advance to Thursday’s district finals against No. 11 Buckeye Local, which took down No. 10 Tusky Valley, 3-2, in Tuesday’s other semifinal. The Red Devils and Panthers will meet at Steubenville’s Crimson Center with the first pitch set for 5 p.m. The winner moves on to regional tournament action next week at Mazeroski Field in Cadiz.

“I was kind of lucky early on because the rain slowed down some, but about the fourth inning it was really coming down. I just fought through it,” Hanna said.

Sandy Valley threatened to make it 2-0 in the fifth as Micah Hoffarth drew a one-out walk and Gino Tuzzi lined a clean single down the third base line. After a sacrifice bunt moved the runners to second and third, Hanna retired leadoff hitter Drew Graybill on a fly to left.

“That pitch will probably eat at me until the day I die, but all that matters is that we won the game.”

The eventual game-winning rally started with two outs in the bottom of the fifth as Caiden Bailey drew a walk off hard-luck loser Sean Felcyn. Freshman Jaxon Starks legged out a roller to second for an infield single and Hanna was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Senior Micky Balgo walked on a 3-1 pitch to tie the game at 1. Colten Florence’s tapper to the third base side of the mound was bobbled by Felcyn as Starks slid home, making it 2-1.

“Give our guys credit,” Sliva added. “Not ideal conditions, but we did what we had to do to come out on top.”

Hanna went out and needed just eight pitches in the top of the sixth. He had a pair of strikeouts in the inning.

“I was getting ahead in the count a lot with my slider,” Hanna noted. “I was just looking to let my fielder’s do what they do and make the plays.”

His teammates rewarded him with a pair of insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth. Starks’ two-out single to right plated Jacob and Bailey scored when Hanna’s grounder to short was misplayed for the game’s lone error.

Hanna ended his gem with a check-swing strikeout.

“Everybody was expecting Brody to start today. Everybody knows how good he is, so to have all that weight placed upon my shoulders, this feels really good,” Hanna said.

Freshman Matheson King had a single and double for two of St. Clairsville’s seven hits. Colten Florence had two singles and an RBI, as did Starks.