COLDWATER - It is an old adage among baseball coaches that when it comes time for the tournament, pitching and defense wins more often than not. On Wednesday afternoon at Veterans Field in Coldwater in the first District semifinal game, Delphos Jefferson had the pitching and New Knoxville did not have any defense as the Wildcats beat the Rangers, 23-2, in five innings.

The game could not have started worse for New Knoxville as Jefferson opened the top of the first crushing everything that pitcher Zach Allen threw toward the plate. Jefferson found the gaps for five hits and when they stung the ball right at a Ranger fielder it turned into an error. Three errors were added to the hits and Delphos started off with five runs in the opening frame.

In the bottom of the inning the Rangers tried to chip away at the lead as Jake Lawler led off with a walk, stole second and then scored after two consecutive groundouts. The five to one score was as close as the game would be the rest of the afternoon.

Jefferson came back in the second inning with three more runs on two hits and two more errors. Meanwhile Wildcat pitcher Craig Carder was doing everything in his power to keep New Knoxville at bay. He gave up another solo run in the second, this time on two hits, but again he slammed the door on any big rallies.

The third inning saw Jefferson only score once but the fourth and the fifth saw seven runs in each inning on eight hits and five more errors. In total, Jefferson scored their 23 runs on 15 hits while New Knoxville allowed 10 miscues.

Meanwhile Carder did exactly what a pitcher is supposed to do with a big league: work fast and throw strikes. He went all five innings for the win, striking out four and allowing only the first inning walk. Both runs were earned.

After the game, Delphos coach Troy Montenery was very pleased with the effort his team gave and especially Carder's performance.

"Craig did a whale of a job," said Montenery. "We were looking for a quality start out of him and he really gave us that today. A three-hit complete game? He's done that for us all season... just a very quality pitcher."

He said the team learned last year how important it was to jump out to an early lead in tournament games. The Ranger errors helped with that quick cushion but his Wildcats still needed to execute.

"Obviously New Knoxville made some errors in the field but good teams take advantage of that situation, keep putting the ball into play. I did think we did a good job with consistently hitting the ball hard. They weren't missing a lot of routine grounders. A lot of those balls were hard hit."

Jefferson moves on to the play the winner of the second District semifinal game, Crestview, at Coldwater on Friday at 6:30 p.m. for the right to move on to the regional tournament.