Staff photo / Brian Yauger Mathews pitcher Alex Nicholson hurls a pitch early in Tuesday’s district semifinal victory over St. Thomas Aquinas. Nicholson struck out 12 in the win.

FAIRPORT HARBOR — With both teams throwing their aces on the mound, Tuesday’s Division IV district semifinal was bound to be a pitchers’ duel.

That’s exactly what happened, with the Mathews Mustangs taking the edge. Pitcher Alex Nicholson struck out 12 to help guide the Mustangs to a 5-0 victory over St. Thomas Aquinas, advancing them to the district final.

“Aquinas, their pitcher (Kyle Andrzejczyk) was fantastic,” Mathews coach Jared Terlecky said. “He was around the strike zone all day, extremely tough to hit. Their defense made just about every play they could. We were fortunate to get a couple guys on and move them, and then we had two clutch sacrifice flies and then of course, that one clutch hit by Jake Williams to knock in two there was big.”

Nicholson not only had a great performance on the mound, but the sophomore also got the team on the board in the first inning, with Ethan Petak knocking him in.

Williams sent three runners home Tuesday, including the final two runs of the game scored by Sam Rath and Ray Snyder.

Runs didn’t come easy for either team, but more so for the Knights, who were held to a single hit. Mathews found itself in a tricky situation in the top of the fifth inning after what could have been a double play, but the runner on first was called safe.

The Aquinas runners got to second and third with only one out and had a chance to tie the game at 2.

With a young roster like the Mustangs have, the pressure could have gotten to them, but Mathews kept those runners stapled to second and third without letting them score, keeping the game as a shutout.

Staff photo / Brian Yauger Mathews centerfielder Ray Snyder runs home to score the team’s fourth run of the contest.

“They came right back,” said Terlecky about his team’s calm response to the pressure. “Sometimes people let that mentally affect them. … If that affects you, there could be a lot of trouble there and a lot of bad things can happen.”

Mathews entered the year with zero returning starters from 2019. With not knowing what to expect entering the year, Terlecky couldn’t be happier with the results.

“I couldn’t be prouder of these guys,” he said. “We started off the season not returning any starters. Everybody was completely new. Nine new starters on varsity, and to get to this level says something about their ability to work hard. We had some trials and tribulations and now we’re playing for a district championship on Thursday, and we couldn’t be happier. We’ll look forward to it.”

The Mustangs (18-6) take on Western Reserve in the final after the Blue Devils upset top-seeded Jackson-Milton earlier in the afternoon. First pitch is set for 5 p.m. on Thursday.