When the Whitehall baseball team stepped onto the field for the opening game of the district tournament, their opponent wasn't going to be shrouded in mystery.

They were facing Liberty High School, a team from their own conference, and the opposing pitcher was Matt Leon, someone they last met on April 19.

They all ready had a book on him. It was going to be a steady diet of heat.

In fact, manager Shaun O'Boyle said they knew Leon was going to come at them with fastballs, his bread and butter, and they were ready.

"He didn't do anything we didn't expect him to do," said O'Boyle.

But what Leon was able to do was baffle and bewilder the Zephs for the most part, going the distance for the 7-3 win in the quarterfinals, eliminating the Zephs from districts. The senior struck out 11 while allowing only five hits to advance the 'Canes into the semifinals.

O'Boyle said that too often the hitters got behind in the count, and that played right into Leon's hand.

"You can't do that against a good pitcher like that," he said.

In their first meeting, O'Boyle said that they were able to work some walks as well as get some timely hits that helped them secure the 3-1 victory. This time Leon was able to wriggle out of any jams.

They appeared to have Leon on the ropes in the third inning. With two outs, Adam Miller stroked a single and later advanced on a wild pitch. That was followed by an RBI single by Ryan Bonshak who later scored on a throwing error by Leon. The Zephs were now ahead 2-1.

However, Leon stopped the bleeding, limiting the damage to just the go-ahead run. That effort was followed by a rally of their own as Abner Santana parked a two-run homerun over the leftfield fence in the fourth.

Jacob Meyers started the game for the Zephs. It wasn't his best outing of the season, but he battled during his four innings of work. O'Boyle said he left a few pitches up in the zone, and the 'Canes capitalized.

"If he did make a mistake, they hit it," O'Boyle said.

That was the case with Santana's homer. O'Boyle said that Meyers was ahead 0-2 in the count, but Santana jumped on a mistake for the round tripper.

In their first meeting, Meyers pitched a gem, allowing just two hits for the complete game victory. Last Wednesday's game was a bit rockier, but he still gave his team an opportunity to win.

Jeff Charles took the mound in relief, but the Zephs only managed one more run the rest of the way. In the bottom of the seventh, Matt Melosky doubled and then scored on a single by Alex Bruneio. It looked like they may have one last surge, but Leon closed the door with a strikeout and ground out to end the game.

O'Boyle said the Zephs didn't play poorly, they just ran into a hot team.

"I think they were better than us that day," he said.

And that was the byproduct of Leon's ability to keep the Zephs from the big inning. He was able to keep their bats quiet.

"You just have to tip you cap to him," said O'Boyle. "He was on."