By Dylan Hefflinger

BOWLING GREEN- Maumee blanked Norwalk 6-0 behind the right arm of Steve Duby to advance to the Division I district finals.

Duby, a West Virginia recruit, was one strike away from his second consecutive no-hitter in tournament action. With a two outs and a 3-2 count on pinch hitter Nick Light, Duby threw a nasty slider and Light stuck his bat out and blooped it over a diving Justin Koepfer at second base for the only hit allowed. Duby induced a groundout to finish the game after Light reached base.

A 6-0 junior, Duby allowed just one hit and three walks, while striking out 10. Duby featured an 83-86 mph fastball that topped out at 88. Duby also had a nasty slider in the game he used as his out pitch. The slider sat between 73-78 mph with 10/4 movement.

The Panthers tallied a run in the third inning with a two-out walk to nine-hole hitter senior Ray Secondo who scored on a double down the left-field line by unsigned senior Billy Laranga to put Maumee up 1-0.

Maumee added four runs in the fourth inning with the eight and nine hitters coming up with huge two-out hits. Junior speedster David McCrum ripped a bases-loaded two-RBI single up the middle scoring senior Kurt Weber and Trine University recruit Jason Blair. After a wild pitch moved the runners to second and third, Secondo laced a two-run single between short and third to put the Panthers on top 5-0.

Secondo scored Blair again in the sixth for his third RBI of the game giving the Panthers a 6-0 advantage.

Norwalk finishes the season ranked 18th in the final poll, with a 22-5 record in their first season in Division I for head coach Wes Douglass.

No. 28 ranked Maumee (18-9) moves on to take on No. 4 ranked Ashland (21-4) on May 19th at 1:00 p.m. at Carter Park in Bowling Green for the district championship.