Pitcher Brooks Hall was in the groove and his Brookhaventeammates responded with a flawless performance on defense. Thatequaled a 6-1 Friday night victory over the Northeast LauderdaleTrojans here on Moyer field in the Game One of the South State 4Asemifinals.

Hall carried a perfect game into the sixth inning before theTrojans connected on back-to-back doubles and scored their only runof the game. The senior right-hander finished with 8 strikeouts andno walks, allowing just 3 hits.

“I felt like I was on tonight,” said Hall. “My curveball wasworking for me. I had control and they (Trojans) were chasingit.

“For one thing, we had good defense,” Hall continued. “All wehave to do now is win one more.”

The Panthers (26-6) rallied to beat Northeast Lauderdale (22-11)Saturday.

Trojan head coach Steve Nelson said he was disappointed with histeam’s performance. “We didn’t come out and play well. Brookhavenput the ball in play and we made the errors,” four in the game.

“(Brookhaven’s) pitcher threw strikes,” Nelson continued. “Hedid a tremendous job.”

The first 3 Trojan batters of the game sent line drives to thespacious outfield but they were caught. They remained hitless untilthe sixth inning when Zane Cradic lashed a double over the thirdbase bag with 1 out to end Hall’s bid for a perfect game. AndrewSiciliano, the next batter, doubled to left-center field and theTrojans scored their only run of the game.

“Brooks was very sharp and we played outstanding defense,” saidBHS coach Randy Spring. “He had the best combination of velocityand stuff that he’s had this year.

“These games are fun to coach. We hit some balls extremely hardand we put pressure on them with stolen bases.”

The Panthers jumped on Trojan starting pitcher Cory Chance for 2runs in the bottom of the first inning. Hall singled with 1 out andadvanced Xavier Qualls to third. He scored on Grant McDonnieal’sRBI grounder to deep short, making it 1-0. Scotty Smith reached onan error and courtesy runner Marlon Dixon raced home with thesecond run.

In the fourth, Smith singled to left. Josh Patrick dribbled abunt back to the pitcher but Chance threw wide to second base andboth runners were safe. Cody Dunaway followed with another buntthat was bobbled and it was 3-0.

Chance (10-3) was replaced by Jason Pritchett. Chance, asubmarine/sidearm specialist, finished with 3 strikeouts, no walksand 4 hits.

Another error and another run later, Perkins hit an RBIsacrifice fly to center and it was 5-0. In the sixth, Perkinssmashed a double to right-center to score Brandt Hinton and make it6-1.

“Coach Spring had a lot of confidence in me tonight,” said Hall.”He let me throw curveballs on that last strikeout,” which endedthe game.