Matt White doesn't mind the work as long as it pays dividends.

White threw 113 pitches over seven innings of work and his efforts were rewarded as the Ironton Fighting Tigers beat the Rock Hill Redmen 9-2 Thursday in the Division III sectional tournament semifinals.

White struck out 13 batters, walked just one, hit one batter and allowed only five hits as he evened his record at 4-4.

"I threw pretty well. I think I threw better against Western Brown. But I wasn't tired. I felt pretty good at the end," White said.

The Fighting Tigers had seven hits, but took advantage of four Rock Hill errors in the third inning to score four unearned runs.

"Matt did a nice job. Any time you strike out 13 batters, you've had a good outing," Ironton coach Mark Lewis said. "Offensively, we were out in front a lot and hit a lot of ground balls. You could tell the layoff hurt our timing."

Matt Barnard took the loss. He fanned two, walked four, and only five of the nine runs were earned.

"Barnard really didn't pitch too bad. We just made some errors and gave them some runs early. If they don't score those four runs, it might be a different ball game," Redmen coach Barry Litteral said.

With the win, Ironton (14-9) will now host Chesapeake at 5 p.m. Monday in the sectional finals.

White helped his own cause with a double, two runs batted in, and some heads-up baserunning. Tyler Whaley was 2-3 with an RBI, Derek Moore tripled and drove in a pair of runs, and Chris Collins was 1-2 with three runs scored.

After two scoreless innings, Ironton got four unearned runs in the third inning.

With one out, Collins reached second base on an error. An out later, Kevin Williams doubled to left field as Collins scored.

Whaley was safe on an error and stole second. When the throw went into center field, Williams came home. White then doubled in Whaley.

Josh Sands beat out an infield hit in the hole to shortstop and White, who broke on the pitch, came around to score.

Rock Hill got a run in the top of the fourth when K. C. Christian singled, stole second, and scored on David Martin's base hit.

But Ironton answered with three runs in the bottom of the inning.

Jeff Parnell, Nick Collins and Chris Collins all walked and Moore was hit by a pitch to force in a run. Following a force play at home, Whaley singled in a run and White had a sacrifice fly to make it 7-1.

The Redmen scored a run in the sixth as Christian walked, stole second, took third on a hit by Kyle Lewis, and scored on a passed ball.

Ironton answered with two runs in its half of the inning.

Chris Collins beat out an infield hit and scored on Moore's triple. Moore came home when the relay throw from the outfield sailed into the dugout.

Nathan Wagner had a double and Christian was 1-2 with two runs scored to lead the Redmen.

Rock Hill (6-12) plays at Coal Grove Tuesday in an Ohio Valley Conference game.

Rock Hill

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Ironton

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Matt Barnard and David Martin. Matt White and Derek Moore. W-White 4-4 (13-K, 1-W, 1-HBP). L-Barnard (2-K, 4-W). 2B-Rock Hill: Nathan Wagner; Ironton: Kevin Williams, Matt White. 3B-Ironton: Derek Moore. SB-Rock Hill: K. C. Christian 2; Ironton: Tyler Whaley 2, Josh Sands, Jeff Parnell. SF-Ironton: Matt White. LOB-Rock Hill 5, Ironton 5. Hitting-Rock Hill: K. C. Christian 1-2, Kyle Lewis 1-3, David Martin 1-3 (RBI), David Schug 1-3, Nathan Wagner 1-3; Ironton: Derek Moore 1-3 (2 RBI), Kevin Williams 1-4, Tyler Whaley 2-3 (RBI), Matt White 1-3 (2 RBI), Josh Sands 1-4 (RBI), Chris Collins 1-2 (3 runs).