CADIZ — The Harrison Central baseball team is moving on. 

The Huskies jumped out to a big lead in Tuesday’s Division V, East 2 District semifinal at home on Mazeroski Field and then held off West Muskingum for the 9-5 victory. 

The Huskies (16-9-1), the No. 2 seed in the district, scored the game’s first eight runs and held the Tornadoes off the scoreboard until the sixth inning. 

Coach Mike Valesko’s club will advance to take on No. 3 seed West Lafayette Ridgewood in the district championship game on Thursday at Tuscarawas Valley. 

The Huskies had the bats going for extra bases in Tuesday’s win as they hit five doubles accounting for nearly half of their 12 hits. 

Lance Smith had a big day, hitting one of the two-basers to go with three singles and four RBIs. Kolton Mizer tallied three hits and three RBIs, Colson Crothers smacked two doubles and plated a run, Trae Dunfee had a double and an RBI and Cash Meadows also doubled. 

On the mound, Gage Stoneking started strong, going the first 5 2/3 innings with three strikeouts and a walk before the visitors finally broke through. 

Mizer came on in relief and fired the final 1 1/3 innings, calming things down to earn the save. 

The Huskies scored two runs each in the first and second, added a run in the third and three in the fourth to open up the big lead, which proved to be more than enough to move on. 

Ninth-seeded West Muskingum (14-13) tallied four runs in the sixth and one in the seventh but it was too little, too late. 

Thursday’s district final is slated to start at 5 p.m.

OHSAA Baseball Tournament 

Division V, East 2 District semifinal 

No. 2 Harrison Central 9, No. 9 West Muskingum 5 

WM 0-0-0 0-0-4 1 — 5 11 2 

HC 2-2-1 3-0-1 x — 9 12 2 

WEST MUSKINGUM (14-13): Ansel (LP, 1 1/3IP, 4R, 3ER, 5H, 2K, 0BB), Dollings (4 2/3IP, 5R, 4ER, 7H, 4K, 2BB). Serdy D, 3RBIs; Ansel 3S; Loyd 2S, RBI; Harris S, RBI; Dollings S; Kuhn S; Brownrigg S. 

HARRISON CENTRAL (16-9-1):Stoneking (WP, 5 2/3IP, 4R, 4ER, 10H, 3K, 1BB), Mizer (SV, 1 1/3IP, 1R, 1ER, 1H, 0K, 1BB) and Mizer, and Dewees. Smith D, 3S, 4RBIs; Mizer 3S, 3RBIs; Crothers 2D, RBI; Dunfee D, RBI; Meadows D; McAfee S.