Correspondent photo / Lowell Spencer Lakeview’s Gino Lazzari gets set to deliver a pitch toward home plate Monday evening against Perry. The Bulldogs captured a 6-0 victory to punch their ticket to the district finals.

=STRUTHERS -The Division III top-seeded Lakeview Bulldogs utilized strong starting pitching, solid defense, and a few timely hits to take down the eighth-seeded Perry Pirates 6-0 Monday night at Bob Cene Park to advance in boys’ baseball tournament play.

The victory advances the ‘Dogs to the District Championship contest on Wednesday night at Cene Park. They will face the Garrettsville Garfield G-Men with the first pitch scheduled at 6:30 PM.

“We have seen some really good arms and some really good teams. We have just played our butts off and it has helped us,” Bulldogs coach Cam Carson remarked about the Bulldogs league and schedule. “We all trust each other. We are a team. No one tries to do too much and keeping it simple has been huge for us. I’m proud of our togetherness and our poise.”

Bulldogs’ senior pitcher Gino Lazzari tossed six shutout innings, only surrendering five hits and one walk while striking out two Pirates to pick up the victory. Tyler Capan pitched a scoreless seventh inning to seal the victory.

“I had all four pitches working tonight,” Lazzari said. “I was able to throw my change-up early to keep them off-balanced which really helped me. My slider and curveball were moving a lot tonight and I was able to locate them.”

But it may have been Capan’s defensive play in the top of the sixth inning that really provided the game-winning save.

With the Bulldogs clinging to a narrow 2-0 lead in the top of the sixth inning, the Pirates began the frame with a single down the third base line. Lazzari struck out the next Pirates batter but then surrendered a line-drive single to left to give the Pirates two runners on with just one out.

The Pirates’ sixth-hole batter Luke Sivon then roped an 0-1 pitch up the middle where Capan slid to his left and snagged the ball in the air. He then hesitated until second baseman Brandon Toot could get to second before tossing the ball for the inning-ending double play.

“Tyler and I have been playing the game together since we were three years old. I love that kid and I trust him to make any play. There isn’t a play that he can’t make,” Lazzari praised his teammate.

The Bulldogs seized control of the contest in the bottom of the first when senior catcher Alex Stow knocked in Lazzari, who roped a two-out single to left and advanced to second on a walk to Andrew McRoberts. That staked the Bulldogs to an early 1-0 lead, the game would soon turn into a grinding pitcher dual.

“I kind of felt like we were unlucky early in the game,” Carson said. “We hit some balls really hard that just didn’t get down. But that’s how this game goes sometimes. We just stayed with our approach, kept going, and finally broke through.”

The Bulldogs blew the game open in the bottom of the sixth with the first three batters all reaching base. McRoberts singled, Stowe and Jake Nicholas each walked to load the basses. Following a foul pop-up out, Nathan Paolucci drew the bases-loaded walk to stake the Dogs to a 3-0 lead.

Toot followed with a sharp one-hopper back to the pitcher who threw home only to bounce the ball past the catcher. That allowed both Stowe and Nicholas to race home and give the Dogs a 5-0 lead. Andrew Brown added a sacrifice fly to provide the Dog’s final run and a commanding lead going into the seventh.