COLDWATER - Delphos Jefferson's quest to repeat as a district champ got off to a nice start Wednesday.

The Wildcats scored early and often as they ripped through New Knoxville 23-2 in a five-inning game in Division IV district semifinal action at Veteran's Field at Memorial Park in Coldwater.

Jefferson will face Crestview in the district championship at 7 p.m. Friday. Crestview beat New Bremen 9-8 in Wednesday's second game.

In the opener, the Wildcats (18-5) pounded out 15 hits and took advantage of nine Rangers (8-10) errors, batted around in three of the five innings en route to the district semifinal win.

"It was a nice day to hit," Delphos Jefferson coach Troy Montenery said. "New Knoxville made some errors and good teams take advantage of that. A lot of the ones they missed were hard hit balls."

The Wildcats started in the top of first when Cory Bastian reached on an error to start the game. Sean Fisher followed with a ground rule double and Josh Miller drove in both runners with a single. Aaron Schuerman walked and Matt Gerdeman reached on an error with one out. Consecutive singles by Taylor Hessling and Craig Carder plated the runners for a 5-0 lead.

"We talked about starting the game on a positive manner," Montenery said. "It calms down the pitcher and the defense."

Three more runs in the second and one in the fourth kept the ball rolling before the flood gates opened when Delphos Jefferson scored seven runs in both the fourth and fifth innings.

For the game, Miller went 3-for-5 with two singles and a double. He scored four times and drove in three runs. Antalis drove in two runs and scored twice.

Carder doubled twice and was in control on the mound. He pitched five innings, allowed three hits and two runs. He struck out four.

"Craig did a whale of a job," Montenery said. "A three hit, complete game."

Crestview 9, New Bremen 8

Ian Clay stroked a grand slam as part of a 4-for-5, five-RBI night to power Crestview in the other district semifinal game at Coldwater.

Crestview entered the top of the fifth inning, trailing 5-3. With two outs, Crestview scored six runs highlighted by Clay's grand slam. In the bottom half of the inning, New Bremen loaded the bases with one out, but Crestview second baseman Tony Springer triggered a double play to end the threat.

Crestview's defense then came up with another key play to end the game. Trailing 9-6, New Bremen loaded the bases with no outs. Two outs later, Corey Jutte smoked a three-run double. However, when he rounded second base, Crestview's defense threw behind him and tagged Jutte out to end the game.