WEXFORD — In Thursday night's PIAA Quad A quarterfinal playoff, the Seneca Valley baseball team seemed to be one step ahead of Peters Township.

It led to a 6-4 Raiders' win at North Allegheny High and sends SV to the state semifinals against Conestoga Monday at a time and site to be determined.

It was the second time in 10 days that the Raiders defeated the Indians. The first came by a 15-4 score in the WPIAL title game May 31.

Peters Township (20-3) lost three games all season, twice to SV and once to Sumter (S.C.) in early April.

“Seneca Valley did the little things right tonight and that was the difference,” said Peters Township coach Joe Maize. “That's why they're the WPIAL champs.”

A key sequence in the game came in the home half of the sixth inning.

The Indians entered the frame trailing 5-3, but trimmed their deficit to one run when Andrew Erenberg's one-out single off Matt Smith scored Chris Olivo.

With runners at first and second and two outs, Smith got Austin Hancock to hit a sharp grounder to shortstop Sam Fragale, who corralled the ball and stepped on second for the force out to end the frame.

The runner the Indians stranded that inning would be the last of eight in the game. Smith retired Peters Township's 6-7-8 hitters in order in the bottom of the seventh.

In all, the Indians tallied their four runs on 10 hits off of Smith, who struck out six and walked four.

“Matt didn't have his best stuff tonight and he knows that,” said Seneca Valley coach Eric Semega. “But with it being hot and humid tonight, he battled.”

The game was tied at two after four innings of play before the Raiders (18-3-1) scored two runs in the fifth inning without the benefit of a base hit.

Indians starting pitcher Chris Watschak hit Ben Murray with a pitch to begin the inning, then walked Christian Durbin on five pitches.

Jon Dorogy laid down a sacrifice bunt, putting runners at second and third. Brad Gresock then hit a groundball that was fielded by Hancock at first base, but his throw home was too late to get courtesy runner Joe McFarland.

Watschak, a southpaw, was relieved by Ryan Minteer. A fielding error with two outs allowed Durbin to score for a 4-2 lead.

The Indians also struggled on the base paths. They had one runner called out at home after a wild pitch and another run was missed when a baserunner failed to tag up from third base on a ball hit to the outfield.

“That's baseball,” Semega said of the Indians' mistakes. “You got 16 and 17-year old kids out there. Sometimes they're going to make the play and sometimes they don't.

“I'm sure it's eating them (Indians) up over there, but it's not like we played an error-free game,” he added.

Peters Township scored one run in the fifth and sixth, but in each case, the Raiders answered with a run of their own in the next half inning.

Included was Dorogy's RBI base hit in the sixth inning and Austin Bream's run-scoring single in the seventh.

“We didn't have a big inning at the plate tonight, but we were able to keep the pressure on by getting one run here, two runs there,” said Semega.

SV's first two tallies came in the top of the first frame thanks to Fragale's double that scored Dorogy and Brad Collier.

Seneca Valley 200 021 1 — 6 8 0Peters Twp 101 011 0 — 4 10 1W: Matt Smith 7 IP (6K, 4BB).

L: Chris Watschak 4 1/3 IP (6K, 2BB).

Seneca Valley (18-3-1): Jon Dorogy 3-1B R RBI, Sam Fragale 1B 2B R 2RBI, Austin Bream 1B RBI, Ben Murray 1B, Christian Durbin 1B R, Brad Collier R, Joe McFarland R, Paul Krevokuch R

Peters Township (20-3): Andrew Erenberg 1B 3B R RBI, Justin Miller R, Brady Sheetz 2-1B 2B R RBI, Justin Bianco 1B, Will McClure 1B RBI, Joe Grossi 2B, Chris Olivo 2B R, Mike Chamberlin 1B

Monday: Seneca Valley vs. Conestoga, PIAA Quad A semifinal, time and site TBD