WEXFORD — Matt Smith is No. 1 in his class — and No. 1 on the mound.

Seneca Valley's junior right-hander tossed a three-hitter Wednesday at North Allegheny, allowing only three baserunners in the Raiders' 2-1 WPIAL Class AAAA semifinal baseball win over Bethel Park.

The victory was SV's sixth straight and puts the Raiders in the WPIAL championship game against Peters Township — a 6-4 winner over Butler — next week at Consol Energy Field in Washington.

“Matt was so solid tonight. He just pounded the zone,” Seneca Valley coach Eric Semega said. “It was impressive the way he kept getting ahead of their hitters.

“He never gave them an advantage.”

The only advantage the Black Hawks had all day was 1-0 after the first inning. Logan Corrigan reached on a one-out infield single, stole second and scored on Eric Yobbi's two-out single to left.

And Smith seemed to take that mini-uprising personally.

“That first hit was a little squibber just out of my reach,” he said. “Then to give up that two-out hit ... It bothered me. I told myself they weren't going to get any more.”

Bethel Park managed one more baserunner the rest of the game. The Black Hawks entered the contest having scored 55 runs during a seven-game winning streak that Smith snapped, seemingly effortlessly.

He threw just 80 pitches, 58 for strikes, in going the distance.

“Matt is No. 1 academically in his class,” Semega said. “He's a very smart kid who analyzes himself all the time.”

“That's the fewest pitches I've thrown in seven innings,” Smith said. “There's no doubt about that.”

The Raiders tied the game in the second. Austin Bream singled to right and eventually scored on a ground ball by Christian Durbin.

SV scored the deciding run in the third as Sam Fragale doubled, moved to third on Kyle Gorniak's single and crossed the plate on a Jack Graham ground ball that was booted by the second baseman.

In between those frames, Smith threw 10 pitches in the Bethel Park second — all strikes — and struck out the side.

“We had never faced that kid, but we heard about him and he lived up to the hype,” Bethel Park coach Tony Fisher said. “He was dominant. He threw his fastball and curve for strikes consistently.

“We tried to put more pressure on him, but we rarely got ahead in the count.”

After Yobbi's run-scoring single, Smith retired 15 straight batters before Corrigan delivered a two-out single in the sixth. He stole second and Smith fell behind No. 3 hitter Grant Brown 3-0.

He came back to strike him out.

Sophomore left-hander Corrigan didn't exactly struggle. He threw only 87 pitches — 32 total in the final four innings — and allowed but five hits. The game was played in 90 minutes.

“Kyle was outstanding. But he was outpitched by their kid,” Fisher said.

“We haven't faced a lefty in quite a while,” Semega said. “He threw us off a bit. We hit some balls hard, but at people. They turned double plays on two of them.”

None of that mattered. Two runs were all Smith needed as he improved to 8-1 on the year.

“Matt was right on it,” first baseman Bream said. “When a guy is throwing strikes like that and the game is moving, everything just comes naturally. Fielding becomes easy.”

His fielders — and the mound — were Smith's best friends on this day.

“I love North Allegheny's mound,” Smith said. “There are no holes in it, it's so smooth, you can get a comfortable stride off it ... It's perfect.”

For the most part, so was he.

Seneca Valley 011 000 0 — 2 5 0Bethel Park 100 000 0 — 1 3 2W: Matt Smith 7IP (8K, 0BB).

L: Logan Corrigan 7IP (3K, 3BB).

Seneca Valley (15-3): Sam Fragale 2B, Kyle Gorniak 1B, Jack Graham RBI, Austin Bream 1B, Ben Murray 2-1B, Christian Durbin RBI

Bethel Park (14-6): Logan Corrigan 2-1B, Eric Yobbi 1B RBI

Next: WPIAL AAAA Championship-Seneca Valley vs. Peters Township at Consol Energy Field, Washington, date and time TBA