UNION MILLS - In a game where runs were rare, the little things teams can do to get a run home become even more important.

In the end, Argos was able to do just enough of those to come away with a 3-2 win over Triton in the semifinals of the South Central Class A Baseball Sectional Saturday.

"We didn't take advantage of the opportunities as much as we should have, but we got lucky and came back to win," Argos coach Boyd Hollabaugh said. "We figured it would come down to a one-run game one way or another."

Argos' Eric Stults and Triton's Jeff Salisbury hooked up in an old fashioned pitcher's duel that kept things scoreless through the first five innings.

Triton broke through first when Jake Burnett walked, went to second on a bunt single from Schulyer Stutzman and third on an error by Stults. He scored on a bunt from Justin Grubbs to make it 1-0.

Argos made it 1-1 in the sixth when Chris Kessler walked and eventually scored on a single up the middle from Stults. In the bottom of the sixth, Triton took a 2-1 advantage on a walk to Derek Ganshorn, a stolen base and a single from Nate Setser.

In the seventh, Argos scored twice on just one hit, but added by an error, two walks and two wild pitches to take 3-2 lead into the bottom of the inning.

Triton had its chance in the bottom of the seventh when Stutzman led off with a single. But some miscommunication had Stutzman getting thrown out at second base on a steal attempt, and the rally was killed.

"They got the job done," Triton coach Jim Shively said. "They got the bat on some balls and put it in play.

"We lead off (the seventh) with hit, and we make a mistake," he said. "It happens. When you make mistakes at critical times, you are going to lose ball games, especially if you are facing a tough pitcher like that. You won't have too many opportunities."

Triton had confidence facing Stults (8-1) because the last time out the Trojans got seven hits on the Argos left-hander. But this time a healthier Stults no-hit Triton for five innings and finished with nine strikeouts.

"The first time we played Triton, they thought they hit him pretty well," Hollabaugh said. "They did, but they didn't know that he was hurting at the time. They got a real look at him today."

"We handled him much better the first time around," Shively said. "We just chased some balls that we should have taken. Stults is a good pitcher, and they supported him enough."

What kept Triton in the game was the six walks from Stults and the pitching of its own lefty in Jeff Salisbury.

Despite giving up two more hits through the first five innings than Stults, Salisbury matched him strikeout for strikeout and scoreless inning for scoreless inning.

Salisbury (4-3) ended up with almost identical numbers as Stults' with four hits allowed, nine strikeouts, one earned run and six walks.

"Salisbury did a good job," Shively said. "I thought he kind of slowed up a little bit at the end and maybe got tired. It was good enough that he should have won if we would have given him decent support."

The loss ended Triton's season at 17-11.

"Coming into this year, with all that we lost, I would have taken a 17-11 record," Shively said. "We lost a lot of ball games that we should have won. We should have been up in the 20 wins. Not a bad year, but a little disappointing right now." [[In-content Ad]]