Fearday was locked in from the opening pitch. The senior right-hander allowed just two baserunners in four innings of work. He walked Riley Wallen with one out in the second and gave up a line drive single to Gavin Wernsing with two outs in the fourth.

“Kaden just pounds the zone,” Kreke noted. “He works to get ahead of hitters. He has enough velocity to keep guys honest and his secondary pitches are strong. He can throw his curve ball and secondary pitches on any count.

“It also helps that our catcher (sophomore Angelo Mendella) calls a good game,” Kreke added. “We have a lot of confidence in Angelo and like what he does. He knows the pitchers and he knows baseball.”

St. Anthony provided Fearday all the support he needed in the second. With one out, both Brody Niebrugge and Eli Moore walked. Then with two outs, Jack Hoene grounded a base hit between first and second to bring home Niebrugge and put the Bulldogs on top to stay.

Moore and Hoene moved up to second and third on the throw home and both runners scooted home when Logan Antrim blooped a double down the left field line. Antrim stole third, and after Kaden Fearday walked, raced home when a pickoff attempt at first trickled away from the WSS first baseman.

It remained 4-0 until the fourth when the Bulldogs put the game away.

With one out, Mendella lined a base hit to center, made it to second on another errant pickoff throw and went to third on a balk. The first run of the frame scored when Jack Hoene’s fly ball was misplayed for an error. Antrim then followed with his third hit – and second double – to drive in his third run of the contest and expand the gap to 6-0.

After Kaden Fearday popped up for the second out, the Bulldogs then collected four straight RBI hits to account for the 10-run margin. Davis Tingley, Aaron Webb and Kennan Walsh all delivered run-scoring singles and Niebrugge capped the inning with an RBI double to the left field fence.

“We were able to string together some hits today. We’ve been searching for that,” Kreke said. “We put together some nice at-bats and had timely hits.

“We’ve been pushing our offense lately,” Kreke added. “You can win with pitching and defense, but you also have to have some timely hits. That was good to see.”

Colton Fearday came in and pitched a 1-2-3 fifth to end the contest and set up the semifinal clash.

“Both teams will know what each other is capable of Wednesday,” Kreke said. “We just need to be in a good mindset. As always, we need to control the controllables.”

In other games Monday, North Clay beat Brownstown/St. Elmo 7-0; Altamont defeated Dieterich 12-2; and South Central pulled away from Neoga 13-3. North Clay will now host Altamont at 4 p.m. Wednesday in the other semifinal game.