MEADVILLE — Travis McDougall was nearly perfect.

Unfortunately for the right-handed pitcher and his Slippery Rock High baseball teammates, he needed to be flawless.

Three of the first four hitters to face McDougall banged out hits, then the senior retired 15 of the next 16 Corry hitters.

But those three first-inning hits were enough for the Beavers as the Rockets fell toCorry 1-0 in the first round of the District 10 Class AAA playoffs at Allegheny College Wednesday.

"I can't ask for anything more out of Travis," said SlipperyRock coach Paul Malley. "He threw 72 pitches and held them right there. We just couldn't get it done."

The two Corry pitchers the Rockets faced had a lot to do with that.

Beavers coach Mike Daniels started senior Jon Bracken, who had a no-hitter through 4X\c innings.

He should have had a no-hitter through five, but Slippery Rock's Dom Neely reached on a strikeout after the ball bounded away from Corry catcher Trevor Newton.

JoshWeitzel followed with the Rockets' only hit.

Bracken yielded to Region 5 Player of the Year Jeremy Cressley, who struck out five of the six batters he faced for the save.

The original plan was to pitch Bracken for three innings and Cressley for the final four, but Bracken was too dominant for Daniels to make a move.

Now only Cressley will be available to the Beavers against Region 5 championWarren Saturday.

Both Bracken and Daniels sport an ERA under 1 this season.

For most of the game, Slippery Rock hitters were flailing away at both pitchers' offerings.

The Rockets did hit a few hard shots. For the most part, though, Slippery Rock made weak contact.

"It was a lot of kids-here-for the-first-time jitters early," Malley said.

But most of it was the impressive pitching from Corry's two aces.

Cressley showed off a major-league caliber curveball in his two innings of work.

"Both pitchers had a pretty good curveball," Malley said. "They were giving our guys the wiggles in there."

Malley thought his team had plenty of time to rally from its quick 1-0 deficit.

Corry's Joel Desch led off the bottom of the first inning with a hard liner to third that the Rockets' RyanFerguson couldn't react to quickly enough and legged it out for a double.

Nick Greer singled him home for the eventual winning run.

"I didn't think that one run would hold up," Malley said.

But it did, and Slippery Rock's first playoff taste in three years was a fleeting one.

Still, after several near misses the last few seasons, the Rockets made the postseason party, even though last call came early.

"This is what we've been fighting for for three years: to get to this spot," Malley said. "Hopefully, this is something we can build on."

Slippery Rock 000 000 0—0 1 0Corry 100 000 x—1 4 0W: Jon Bracken 5 IP (2 K, 2 BB).

L: Travis McDougall 6 IP (8 K, 0 BB).

Slippery Rock (8-11): Josh Weitzel 1B

Corry (17-4): Joel Desch 2B, R; Nick Greer 1B, RBI; Colin Bailey 1B; Cory Owens 1B