ERIE — The Slippery Rock High baseball team sharpened its bats and scattered the field Tuesday.

The Rockets took advantage of four days off — brought on by rain that led to unplayable field conditions — by practicing hard at the plate, and came away with a 7-4 win over Warren in a District 10 4A semifinal at Ainsworth Field.

“It's been a lot of batting practice and a lot of hitting, and we worked on our approach at the plate,” said Slippery Rock coach Fred Pryor. “That's one thing about this group of kids; they want to work.”

The Rockets (19-2) broke open the game in the third inning. They held a 2-1 lead when Danny Williams and Ricky Mineo hit consecutive singles to start the bottom of the frame.

That's when Zach Van Dyke, who finished 2-for-4 with two RBI, changed the game. Van Dyke hit a rope into the deep recesses of right field, making it to second and sending home Williams.

“Everyone knew that once we started hitting, we started hitting,” Van Dyke said. “And for me to do that in the middle of the order, the rest of the team followed.”

Derek Van Dyke followed with an RBI sacrifice hit and managed to stay on the base-path, reaching second on a throwing error to first.

Patrick Busa's sacrifice fly to left field brought home Zach Van Dyke. Then, Kyle Benson sent Derek Van Dyke home with a sacrifice hit, and reached first on yet another error.

Benson scored from third on the third error of the inning, and by the time the inning was over Slippery Rock held a 7-2 lead.

“That's high school baseball,” Warren coach Rick Eaton said of the errors. “Kids are going to be kids and you're going to make mistakes, (but) can you overcome them?”

Warren did not, though they came close. The Dragons were down 7-2 in the sixth when Austyn Cummings and Seth Baldensperger hit singles, and were brought home by Lance Baldensperger's two-run single to narrow the gap at 7-4.

The Rockets were not shaken, and Pryor didn't even think about sending in relief for starting pitcher Gunner Becker.

“It was going to be Gunner all the way,” Pryor said.

Becker (9-0) recovered in the top of the seventh, retiring the first three batters to secure the win. He allowed four earned runs on seven hits, while fanning six and walking two in a complete-game effort.

Catcher Zach Van Slyke emphasized one word to describe Becker's pitching.

“Hard,” he said. “Hard, hard, hard, hard, hard. (Becker) was bringing it today. I can't ask for more from a pitcher.”

Colby Johnson got the loss for Warren. He gave up four earned runs on seven hits, while striking out none and walking none in 2 1/3 innings.

Warren (17-5) scored in the first inning when Derek Knapp walked, reached second on a fielder's choice, stole third and scored on Cummings' RBI sacrifice hit.

However, the Rockets responded when Zach Van Dyke drove in Becker in the bottom of the first, and Busa's run in the second on Nick Stutz's sacrifice fly gave them the 2-1 lead.

Eaton was upset that the game was delayed. It was initially set to be played in Slippery Rock on Friday, then Saturday and then Monday, but rain flooded Slippery Rock University's field.

He called it “a really bad situation” that District 10 did not have a backup field ready at the time.

“Tough decision-making by District 10 this year, as far as I'm concerned, on these playoffs,” Eaton said. “But that didn't win the game. We still should have won the game.”

Slippery Rock will face Hickory at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Critchfield Park.

Warren 100 102 0 — 4 7 5

Slippery Rock 115 000 x — 7 9 0

W: Gunner Becker 7IP (6K, 2BB). L: Johnson 2.1IP (0K, 0BB).

Warren (17-5): Cummings 1B RBI

Slippery Rock: Zach Van Dyke 1B 2-RBI, Ricky Mineo 3-R, Derek Van Dyke 1B RBI

Thursday: Slippery Rock vs. Hickory in District 10 4A championship game at SRU, 6:30 p.m.