Third inning is the charm for Gladiators

On Tuesday, that inning belonged to Glenelg, which beat visiting South Carroll 5-0.

It came as a bit of a surprise, after the Cavaliers starting pitcher Garrett Harrison had gotten through the first two innings in six batters, striking out four.

But Austin Siegfried, the No. 7 hitter, slammed an off-speed pitch over the right-field wall to open the bottom of the third.

‘‘He threw me a pretty good pitch. It was a little bit inside and right down the middle,” Siegfried said.

Glenelg pounced on the vulnerability. Evan Sanna followed with a single shot straight at Harrison, forcing him to dive onto his back. Harrison then walked Mike Delph, setting up an RBI single from Nick Pena. And while he got Chris Johnson to strike out, Steve Visnic cranked out a two-RBI double to left field.

Visnic would later score on a single from A.J. Rosenthal.

South Carroll head coach George Richardson Jr. knew that Glenelg was going to be the biggest challenge in the playoffs.

‘‘We threw three offspeed pitches to guys that couldn’t catch up to the fastballs,” he said. ‘‘They hit a home run, a double and a line drive up the middle. And those were the only balls they hit hard.”

And in that one inning was the entirety of Glenelg’s offense, with fives hits and five runs. Harrison finished with 12 strike outs and three walks in an otherwise spectacular outing.

However, the Gladiators were also able to throw their ace, and Visnic pitched a one-hitter, striking out 10 while giving up one walk.

The only hit for the Cavaliers came from Logan Murray, who hit a bloop single over the shortstop’s head in the fifth inning, wrecking the no-hit bid.

‘‘I was disappointed, but I kept my head up there and stayed poised,” Visnic said. ‘‘There were more important things, like winning the game.”

Glenelg knew that South Carroll would be a solid team, but head coach Tom Thrasher limited his team in how much they knew, opting to not scout the team.

‘‘We decided that we hadn’t done it with teams all year, we just went with what we thought was our best offensive and defense club,” Thrasher said.

‘‘I thought we might get the Harrison boy. We knew he could throw, he’s an excellent, excellent pitcher. We just got some timely hits.”

Visnic knew that with the week off, they would be seeing South Carroll’s ace. He also knew that he’d be the one taking the mound against the Cavaliers. But the rain-out on Monday didn’t disrupt his preparation for the game too much.

‘‘It’ll vary up until 30 minutes beforehand, then I have the same exact warm-up routine everyday,” Visnic said.

One thing that the scouting report might have hinted at was that the entire team could have parked in metered parking. South Carroll had an odd penchant for zipping through games this season, and the quarterfinal was no different.

The last pitch of the game was only 1 hour and 23 minutes after the first pitch.

South Carroll closed out the regular season with a 9-0 win over Middletown. Chris Chastain needed only 77 pitches and about an hour and 15 minutes to wrap that game up.

The Cavaliers loose six key starters to graduation, including Harrison. Catcher Zac Stavish, first baseman Chastain, third baseman Jack McCarty, centerfielder Cody Lederer and right fielder Jess Mott are all seniors.