No pressure for Noah DeSotel.

DeSotel, a junior for West Marshall baseball, whacked a walk-off single into the outfield to clinch a 2-1 victory for the Trojans over Hudson in an intense eight-inning district semifinal showdown at Schilling Field on Monday night.

West Marshall is on to the Class 2A District 3 finals, drawing Aplington-Parkersburg (16-7) for a 7 p.m. start at Schilling Field on Saturday.

“I was pretty confident,” DeSotel said of stepping to the plate in the eighth. “I trusted myself, I trusted my teammates had my back, that they felt I could get it done.”

T-R PHOTO BY JAKE RYDER - West Marshall’s Grayson Shaver, front, hugs teammate Noah DeSotel after DeSotel’s bases-loaded hit in the bottom of the eighth inning lifted the top-ranked Trojans to a 2-1 victory over Hudson on Tuesday at Schilling Field in State Center. Andrew Tollefson (13) joins in on the fun for the Trojans.

Owen Siegert roped a leadoff double and Beckham DeSotel drew a one-out walk, with Owen stealing third on ball four. AJ Dee was walked to load the bases and set the stage for Noah, who took a crack at an 0-1 pitch to punch the Trojans’ ticket to the next round.

“He [Noah] went up there with confidence, good body language,” West Marshall head coach Jerod Brown said. “I think he’d tell you his confidence in general is higher than what it was last year, he’s grown so much as a player, and playing in more of these kinds of games, gives him something to draw back on, to say that he’s been successful in those moments.”

Even when West Marshall retired 13 Hudson batters in a row, the Pirates were consistently pressuring the hosts, especially when West Marshall’s offense lacked in timely hitting.

“There were a lot of hard outs from Hudson,” Noah DeSotel said. “They put a lot of pressure on, hit the ball hard all night.”

Grayson Shaver landed the first blow with an RBI double in the fifth inning to score Caden Pfantz.

Hudson had a quick answer in the top of the sixth, with Nathan Rueber scoring from second on a hit-and-run play with Culin Ugrin putting a ball deep in the gap at shortstop that the Trojans couldn’t relay home in time.

Owen Siegert, the night’s starter for West Marshall, struck out the next two batters to get out of a 2nd-and-3rd jam and keep it a 1-1 game.

Siegert struck out nine with one earned run allowed on three hits with no walks in seven innings, maxing out his pitch count and making him unavailable for the district final on Saturday.

“I didn’t have my best stuff tonight. I was wild,” Siegert said, “wasn’t attacking the zone as much as I would like.”

Shaver came in to start the eighth, but after striking out the first two batters, Tate VanDyke reached first for Hudson beating out an infield single and Shaver was wincing in pain and holding his left knee.

Noah DeSotel came in needing a final out and caught VanDyke off the bag, catching him in a rundown for the third out.

“You never know when you number’s going to get called,” DeSotel said. “I think that was good for me [to get that last out] and get that energy for when it was my time at the plate.”

Saturday’s game with the Falcons is a rematch of last year’s district final, won by West Marshall, 9-7. The Trojans also hung on for a 7-5 win over the Falcons earlier this season.

Brown suggested that Shaver, who would’ve likely started against A-P, will not be available on Saturday.

The Falcons will likely put Devin Davis on the mound, their leading pitcher who was pulled early from a 5-1 win against Grundy Center earlier in the night.

“We’ve got to focus on what we can do better,” Brown said. “We’ve got a lot of respect for A-P’s program and their coaches, but I don’t want us to get lost at this time of year focusing too much on the other team, we just have to focus on what we were doing right in the regular season.

“The biggest thing is we had guys tonight trying to do a lot at the plate rather than just passing the baton. You’re not going for knockout punches, you’re looking for jabs. What can I do to move it along, score a runner, advance a runner, make pitchers throw to you. All those ramifications can add up at the end.”