NILES — After three scoreless innings Monday, something had to give.

Both Columbiana and Springfield had gotten runners into scoring position, but neither could bring them home against stout pitching.

Columbiana’s Zachary Pleska liked what he saw from Springfield starter Alex Rothwell in his first at bat, and tried to put the ball in play during his second at bat. Instead, Pleska blasted a shot to right field that cleared the high right-field fence at Wilder Field.

That, plus an insurance run in the sixth inning, were enough to send the Clippers past Springfield 2-0 and onto Wednesday’s Division III Niles district final.

“The first at bat, he pitched me outside, so I was really thinking a strong backside line drive,” Pleska said. “At first when I hit that, I thought it was going to bounce off the wall and I was thinking (second base) or maybe even extend it to (third base), but as I was running, I saw it clear the fence and I was just like, ‘Wow.’ It was extraordinary. Everyone was hyped about it. I feel like that was a turning point in the game.”

It did end up being a turning point, because after that the Clippers were able to add an additional insurance run in the bottom of the sixth thanks to an RBI single from Brady Kridler with two outs on the board.

Plus, starter Riley McElwain was able to carry the shutout through to the final out. After two groundouts to lead off the top seventh inning, the Tigers were able to get back-to-back base hits and advanced both of those runners into scoring position on a wild pitch.

So, McElwain made way for Seth Spooner to get the final out for the Clippers. After a couple balls, Spooner got the strikeout Columbiana needed to clinch the game.

“We didn’t put the bat in the strike zone,” Springfield head coach Terry Dobson said. “We’ve preached that all year and little things add up to a whole picture. We didn’t do the little things to win the game and they did.”

McElwain finished with nine strikeouts and two walks in 6.2 innings of work.

“He was unreal,” Columbiana head coach Ryan Wolf said of McElwain. “The thing is, (Springfield) had a couple situations with runners on base, where they had the chance to tie the game. When (McElwain) needed to, he was going to win that battle. That’s kind of the way he has been all the time. He kept his composure — we made some mistakes on defense at times, but he kept his composure and said, ‘That’s fine, we got the next one,’ and he did.”

The Tigers had some momentum building during those first three innings, getting on base a couple times with a hit, walk and fielder’s choice. But base-running mistakes cost Springfield with one runner getting caught off the bag on a pick off by McElwain and two runners getting caught stealing.

“It wasn’t that we lost confidence,” Dobson said. “It just took momentum away from us.”

With the win, Columbiana will face South Range in the district final Wednesday. The Raiders defeated Champion 3-1 in the second semifinal game Monday.