No. 10 Etowah outlasted host St. John Paul II Catholic 9-3 in the opener of their Class 4A semifinal on Wednesday.

The game in Huntsville finished in the rain after a three-hour weather delay.

Thursday’s game two is at 5 p.m. followed by a third game, if necessary, at 7. The winner will advance to next week’s 4A championship in Oxford/Jacksonville.

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Winning pitcher Jameson Scissum, a sophomore, had four strikeouts and allowed three runs on four hits in six innings. Damon Devine finished the seventh for the Blue Devils (27-11).

“I started off rough, but I just let my teammates play behind me and they got the job done,” Scissum (5-2) said. He threw mostly his fastball, which tops out at 88-89.

The Blue Devils led 7-0 entering the weather delay in the middle of the third. Caleb Freeman homered in the first. Etowah scored six unearned runs in the third on two hits, a walk, a hit batter and three errors off Falcons starter Brendan Caruso.

Freeman, the center fielder and Snead State signee, went 2-for-3 and scored three runs. He was hit by a pitch in the third.

“It was a rough night,” Freeman said. “It was raining outside, but we came in and did what we were supposed to do, pulled out a win.”

This series matches two young coaches: Etowah’s second-year Blake Bone and the Falcons’ first-year Robby Seemann.

“I think (this win was) a combination of executing offensively when we had to,” Bone said. “I think Jameson hit some guys, but he kept a good offensive team at bay most of the game. I think we also defended well tonight. We turned (three) double plays.”

Caruso took the loss for St. John Paul II Catholic (25-12). Paul Andrzejewski hit a two-run triple and scored for the Falcons in the third after play resumed.

“They executed their offense well,” Seemann said. “We had too many errors in the field. And we had one bad inning that got away from us. And just got to execute better tomorrow.”