COLONIAL HEIGHTS—Southampton Academy pitcher Jacob Holland started Thursday’s VISAA Div. III semi-final match off shaky due to a slick mound.

In the first inning, he walked three batters. The first one was thrown out at second by catcher Matt Rose on a steal attempt. The other two were left stranded after a Holland strikeout and a defensive stop.

“He couldn’t get his footing,” said Head Coach Tim Nixon. “But he got out of the inning without giving up a score and settled in after that.”

Southampton Academy then cruised to a 6-0 victory against the Trojans of Walsingham Academy.

The big inning for the Raiders came in the third. Holland led off with a walk, and Rose followed up with a single. Tonee Hill stepped to the plate, and loaded the bases with a single of his own. From there, Ethan Edwards cleared the bases with a double.

After a three-run third, the Raiders picked up two more in the fifth off of some errors. Holland led off with a hit, and made it to second due to an error. Hill’s at-bat resulted in another error, which put runners at first and third. Edwards loaded the bases with a walk. Two errors brought in Holland and Hill.

The scoring would come to a close in the sixth inning, with Cam Hines hitting a solo home run.

Andrew Lowe came into relieve Holland in the seventh inning. He gave up a hit, but shut them down after that.

“We capitalized on their mistakes, and had timely hits when we needed to,” said Nixon. “That’s how we won.”

Their opponent will not be decided until today when North Cross faces Fuqua School. Fuqua School plays in SA’s conference, so they are familiar with them, but Nixon said they haven’t faced North Cross in the four years he has been there. North Cross, a sixth seed, defeated Isle of Wight Academy, a three seed, to advance, and Fuqua, the second seed, defeated seventh-seed Broadwater to advance.

“If it’s Fuqua, we pretty much know each other,” he said. “We just have to play our game like we have this year. We’ll get a scouting report of North Cross, and we may even send someone to watch the game. We’ll know enough about them.

“We just have to keep doing the same things we have been doing, and we’ll be fine.”

The Raiders are also coming off of a quarterfinal match-up against Brunswick Academy, which they won in five innings 10-0.

“We went up 4-0 early,” he said. “We pretty much jumped on their starting pitcher, and knocked him out by the third or fourth inning.

“Brynner Porter pitched really well for contact, and we made some really nice defensive plays behind him.”

Nixon said they went in with the plan to not take them lightly, so they came out swinging.

“Once we jumped ahead earlier, it pretty much took the fight out of them,” he said.