Photo by Nick Henthorn St. Clairsville’s Roby Hanna connects for an RBI single in the third inning against Edison in the OVAC semifinals on Monday, a 5-0 St. C. victory. Hanna finished the day 3-3 at the plate.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — New year, same destination.

Winners of OVAC championships the last two seasons, top-seeded St. Clairsville is on their way back to the conference title game after defeating No. 4 Edison 5-0 on the turf field of the St. Clairsville Jr. Sports Complex on Monday.

Brody Saunders limited the Wildcats to two hits in an impressive pitching performance, striking out 13, while also going 2-3 at the plate with a double and two RBI to help his cause.

“We ran into a really good pitcher,” Edison head coach Mike Collopy said. “St. Clairsville is well-coached every year. They had some timely hits. We had some mental mistakes that kind of hurt us. But when you have someone who’s striking out double-digits, then we didn’t do enough at the plate. I thought our kids competed, but today he was better than us.”

It was all clicking for Saunders on Monday.

“That’s as good as I’ve seen a game pitched in a long time,” St. Clairsville head coach Tom Sliva said. “He was phenomenal, he had complete control, lots of pop, he was outstanding today. Today he showed why he’s the senior leader bulldog that he is.”

Saunders struck out the side to start the game, but Edison starting pitcher Brady Haught also kept St. Clairsville off the scoreboard until the third inning. Rowan Mellott started the inning being hit by a pitch, and moved to second after a textbook sacrifice bunt by Jaxon Starks.

Roby Hanna came up with two outs and shot a single to right field, scoring Mellott. Saunders followed him and belted a double to the centerfield fence to bring ’round Hanna and make it 2-0.

That was all the damage done in the frame, and where the score stood until the bottom of the fifth, which once again began with Mellott reaching via hit-by-pitch, and moving to second on a Starks sac bunt. Leadoff man Caiden Bailey poked a single to left field, and a fumbled fielding effort allowed Mellott to score on the play. Hanna singled up the middle, and Saunders followed with a single to right field. Either hit scored the man before them, and St. Clairsville was left with a comfortable 5-0 lead.

“We got some guys on, we moved them up and we got them in,” Sliva said. “We did a really nice job. That’s a very good baseball team, well-coached, and you better make things happen when you have opportunities. We were fortunate enough to do that today.”

Hanna finished the day going 3-3 with a double and two singles.

Saunders struck out the side in the sixth and struck out two of three in the seventh. Third baseman Niko Jacob made a catch in foul ground up against the St. C. dugout to record the final out of the game.

St. Clairsville reaches the OVAC championship with a chance at a three-peat on the line. They are set to face the same opponent of the last two years as well– Indian Creek, who defeated Harrison Central 5-2. The Red Devils will have some of the same faces from last time around, as well as some new ones, when they rematch Creek.

“We’ll approach the game the same as we have,” Sliva said of his team’s third straight championship appearance. “It’s a testament to our kids, the families they come from, our coaching staff– we did lose a ton of quality players, but these guys are their own team. They’re excited about it and they can’t wait for the opportunity.”

The OVAC championship games will be played Friday and Saturday at Edison High School.

Edison has little time to dwell on the game. They play at Steubenville on Tuesday.

“We play tomorrow so we have to be ready to play,” Callopy said. “That’s all there is to it. It’s good for our kids to be here, to be in a tournament situation, we just didn’t get it done. We have a lot of season left and we’re going to keep getting better.”