MARIETTA, Ohio — Trent Valentine had something to prove.
 
Following a subpar showing in last week's NCAA Division III Baseball Regional, Valentine returned to form on Saturday as he scattered six hits over seven innings as Marietta defeated Oswego State 13-2 in the first game of the Marietta Super Regional.
 
"I knew I had to. To myself, I couldn't go out there and do that again," said Valentine, who improved to 13-1. "I thought that was embarrassing. I needed to get back to what I've been doing and that's what I did."
 
Oswego State coach Scott Landers was impressed with Valentine, who struck out four and threw 93 pitches at Don and Sue Schaly Field at Pioneer Park.
 
"I tip my cap to Valentine. He pitched a great game," Landers said. "He didn't leave too many pitches over the plate. He mixed well and he only had one walk. He didn't beat himself and pitched a great game."
 
Against Kalamazoo last week, Valentine only made it through three innings before coach Brian Brewer had to relieve the staff ace. On Saturday, Valentine reminded his coach why he earned first team All-Ohio Athletic Conference honors.
 
"You can't say enough about the job Trent did. He was exceptional and executed our pitch plan," Brewer said. "Offensively, once we got rolling a little bit we moved the ball and did a really good job with two strikes. It's a lot of the things we did all year and it's the reason we're in this position."
 
Through three innings, Oswego State starter Kieran Finnegan kept Marietta's offense in check as the game was tied 1-1. However, the second-ranked Pioneers (42-5) took advantage of two Lakers' errors, a wild pitch and five hits to score seven runs and take a commanding 8-1 lead.
 
"When you play at this level you have to be able to pitch, play defense and hit," Landers said. "They made the plays and we didn't make the plays that inning and it cost us and it turned into a big inning. You have to play all three phases of the game at this point, and we didn't do that. We didn't string any at-bats together. After that we didn't take the momentum back."
 
With the bases loaded, Alex Richter singled to center that brought home Zach Boyd to give the Pioneers the lead. Trent Castle, who went 2 for 5 with three RBI, scored on Drew Wilkinson's sacrifice fly. The big hits followed after that, though.
 
Turner Hill doubled to score Brett Carson, who went 3 for 4. Richter scored and Hill advanced to third on a wild pitch, and then Hill scored on a Damian Yenzi double. Logan Vietmeier also added a solo home run — his 10th HR this season — in the big inning.
 
"They made it pretty interesting early on. Had some runners on and put some pressure on our defense," Yenzi said. "I think we thrive whenever teams get a lead. Coach Brewer and all the coaches preach that we have to punch back with a jab or a haymaker. That's what we're trying to do, we're trying to answer and win every inning."
 
Valentine, who said he was mainly throwing fastballs and change ups, said his approach on the mound didn't change after the big inning.
 
"It's great, but in my mind I was still thinking it's still 1-1. I wasn't even looking at the score," he said. "They're fun to watch in the dugout. I may not look like I'm watching, but I'm watching and clapping along."
 
Sticking to the game plan is why Brewer believes the Pioneers enjoyed so much success Saturday.
 
"I thought we played exceptionally well," he said. "We had a game plan to try to speed them up a little bit, move the ball and do some things, and while we didn't have a lot of success with that early on, we stood pat and stayed with it and I think some of those things paid off for us."
 
Marietta put the game away by scoring two runs in the fifth inning and three more in the sixth.
 
Yenzi had a clutch two-out single that scored Hill and Carson.
 
"When we're focused on getting on base we're focused on helping the guy behind us and making their job easier," Carson said. "Even when we sped them up and they had a couple of errors, it just made it easier for a couple of hits to fall."
 
In the sixth, Castle blasted his fifth homer, which brought home Vietmeier and Drew Holderbach, who also had two hits.
 
"We've been good at it all year," Brewer said. "It's not only a commitment to our approach, but to each other. I think these guys completely get it and a lot of this happens because of the leadership and the experience these guys have, and they've seen it work and they've seen these things happen. They understand this is how you win and these are the things you have to do."
 
The Lakers (33-12) did take an early 1-0 lead when shortstop Paul Tammaro led off the game with a single, and eventually scored on Lukas Olsson's groundout. Tammaro finished with two hits to improve his average to .456.
 
"We need to clean some things up defensively," Tammaro said. "We should come back tomorrow and play our game."
 
Oswego State won two elimination games against Arcadia last week, so the Lakers have been here before.
 
"It definitely helps us, but felt like today was definitely a step back from what we've gotten to this year," Tammaro said.
 
Landers added, "We'll come back tomorrow and hopefully show what we're really made of. We played our brand of baseball early. But if you look at the box score and we go 0 for 4, 0 for 4, 0 for 4 at three, four, five we're not going to win too many games."
 
Marietta needs to win one game Sunday to advance to the NCAA Division III Baseball Championship, which will be played Perfect Game Field at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, from June 3-8.
 
However, Brewer reminded his squad after the game that they need to remain focused on Sunday's action and not look ahead.
 
"We had a lot of things in our favor at the beginning of the day and I think that continues to be the case. But you can have everything going in your favor and if you don't show up it doesn't matter," Brewer said. "You're playing really good teams this time of year. We told the guys we have to focus. There's going to be a lot of clutter going on. Their parents are going to be talking about Cedar Rapids and everything else. We just got to lock in physically and mentally and try to win pitch one tomorrow. If we do that, I like our chances."