GREENCASTLE — Greencastle-Antrim’s baseball team pounced on Elizabethtown for three runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to break a 2-2 tie.

Blue Devil pitcher Ryder Linn then finished off a five-hit complete game with zeroes in the sixth and seventh, taking G-A past the Bears, 5-2, in a District 3 Class 5A first-round playoff game Friday afternoon in Greencastle.

Cam Rakaczewski

The No. 3-seeded Blue Devils (18-2) advance to Monday’s quarterfinal round and will host No. 6 Manheim Central (14-7), which defeated Warwick, 3-2. E-town finished with a 10-11 record.

Greencastle coach Eric Shaner said, “When we fell behind early, we didn’t panic. We stuck with it and continued to play our game. It was a great team win.”

With the score knotted 2-2 headed to the bottom of the fifth, Bryce Davidson led off with a base hit and Andrew Weaver then drew a walk. Cam Rakaczewski lined a double to left and both runners crossed the plate. Two batters later, Avery Horst produced a single and an RBI to nake it 5-2.

Shaner said, “We did a good job in the middle innings of getting our leadoff man on, and Rak was able to deliver the big blow in the fifth to create some separation.”

Elizabethown scored single runs in the second and fourth, and G-A did likewise in the third and fourth.

In the Blue Devils’ third, a Landon Bishop base hit, a sacrifice by Davidson, a single by Weaver and Rakaczewski’s sac fly plated a run. In the fourth, singles by Horst and Manny Brookens put runners on the corners, and Bo Brookens tied the game with a sac fly to left.

In his route-going performance, Linn walked two batters and struck out five. He was effcient, throwing just 78 pitches, 51 for strikes.

“Ryder pitched a great game and really limited hard contact,” Shaner said. “We also took some really good at-bats and did a good job of putting the ball in play.”