Dragons hurler Ben Berdine certainly kept his end of the bargain, but the Grove City bullpen was unable to maintain its early success as Warren grabbed three runs in the fifth inning and three more in the seventh on the way to a 7-1 win.

The victory moves Warren to 11-8 on the year and sets up a Friday matchup with Harbor Creek (18-2), which was a 6-1 winner over Corry on Tuesday.

“We’re going to just keep working hard because the team we are probably going to play has two or three pitchers just like him (Berdine),” Dragons head coach Rick Eaton said. “The Harbor Creek team is a pretty solid team.”

The Huskies topped Warren 8-0 on April 13 and 5-3 on April 15.

The Dragons’ Ben Berdine delivers to the plate.

The Dragons defense was crucial from the get-go on Tuesday, with Berdine leading the charge on the mound and some excellent fielding work bringing up the rear.

While the Eagles were able to place runners on base early, several players ended up stranded on second and third base while Berdine fought his way out of jams on the way to seven strikeouts, one walk and five hits in six innings of work that included 104 pitches.

“He had a good mixture of pitches today and he located pretty good,” Eaton said of Berdine. “He throws hard and he is hard to hit, and if you have to be looking for the second or the third pitch, the changeup or the curveball, it makes it a little harder to hit. They got some hits because they are a good hitting team. They always have been down there. Both pitchers were throwing hard today. That was a pretty good high school baseball game at the pitcher’s spot there.”

It was fitting perhaps, that Berdine also rallied the Warren offense in a big way in the fourth inning, cranking a deep shot to right field that took a hop off the back wall for a double.

He was replaced on the bag by Paul Smith, who moved to third on a fielder’s choice and was then sent home when Ben Sowa ripped a line drive off the leg of Grove City pitcher Mason Jones for an RBI single.

Above, Warren’s Micah Passmore is late applying a tag on Grove City’s Andrew Swartfager during Tuesday’s PIAA District 10 Class 4A quarterfinal against Grove City at Slippery Rock University.

“That was the key,” Eaton said of his defense. “When they had second and third (base) and they didn’t score and then we came back and got the hard ball off the pitcher and that run in after Ben had doubled. That got us there and momentum is a good thing, if you’ve got momentum on your side. We pretty much kept the momentum after that and added on.”

In the bottom half the Eagles would threaten once again as Hayden McCreadle struck a single and moved to third on two ground balls.

Berdine worked out of that with a strikeout of John Hake, and forced a pop-up from Rowan Peramble to maintain the shutout.

The biggest momentum swing of the day came in the top of the fifth, as Warren’s Alex Borger went to first on a wild pitch and advanced on a bunt by Dylan Maeder.

The runners would move to second and third when Jones missed a pickoff throw to second, after which James Swanson was walked to load the bases.

From there Micah Passmore was struck by a pitch to plate a run, and Berdine returned to the plate, cracking a ground ball that scored Swanson and Maeder to make it 4-0.

Berdine would finish his day 2 for 4 at the plate with three RBIs.

The Eagles would respond in the bottom half as Jones helped his own cause with an RBI single, but the 6-foot-5 senior was relieved of his pitching duties in the seventh, allowing Warren to add four more runs.

Those would come on a two-RBI double to center by Swanson and another hit from Berdine, this time an RBI single that scored Swanson.

In a fitting end to the day, Warren would earn its final out when Borger stretched for a hard grab at third base and wheeled for a throw to Anthony Errett at first, who put in a great effort of his own to stay on the bag.

Jones would strike out 10 and walk three in six innings before giving way to John Hake for Grove City.

Sowa took the hill for Warren in the final inning, earning one strikeout. The Dragons will now have to rely on their bullpen to get past Harbor Creek.

“I told them, we’ve worked all year to get to this point,” Eaton said. “Pitching-wise I have a bunch of good young arms but I don’t have a horse like (Berdine). We knew that people were going to have to come in if he can’t finish the game and we’re going to go into our next game with young arms trying to figure out how we are going to win a ball game. That is what we’ve been doing all year.”