NORTHAMPTON — Seth Finnessey’s impressive performance in the regular season carried into the postseason.

The Northampton pitcher struck out nine to help Northampton avoid elimination and advance to the semifinals of the Western Mass. Sandy Koufax Championship, with a 5-2 win over Powerhouse, Friday at Northampton High School.

“I knew they were a good hitting team,” said Finnessey, who clinched the victory with his ninth strikeout to end the game. “I just wanted to throw strikes, make them hit it, put it in play.”

Northampton will play Frontier, Saturday at 1 p.m. in the semifinals at South Hadley High School for right to play the winner of Powerhouse and the Western Mass. Rebels in the finals.

“He has been terrific all year long. He doesn’t have an overpowering fastball, but he rarely gets in trouble with his control,” Northampton coach Tim Molaghan said. “He was right at his pitch limit at the start of the seventh inning. We agreed he’d go one hitter at a time, and he got through it. He did a wonderful job.”

Northampton took an early lead and held it all game. Colin Ferrara and Evan Renault scored in the bottom of the first on Mathew Sullivan’s RBI double to center field. Tommy O’Connor and Owen Shelffo made it 4-0 in the bottom of the second on an RBI double from Renault.

Niko Mongeon put Powerhouse on the board in the top of the fourth on an RBI from Anthony Cuccouia. Northampton responded in the bottom of the inning when Shelffo slid home on a passed ball and brought Northampton up 5-1.

Mongeon scored again in the top of the sixth after Sam Cangemi hit an RBI double to right.

Powerhouse’s Lucas Olson (six strikeouts) pitched the first four innings and let up all five of Northampton’s runs. Cangemi replaced Olson in the fifth and struck out one. Josh Martinek pitched in the sixth and struck out none.

Finnessey said Northampton needs to repeat Friday’s performance in the semifinals.

“We need to keep executing in the early going of the game, and just adding more runs on the board towards the beginning and keep it going throughout the game,” Finnessey said.

Molaghan felt confident about his team’s future.

“We’re thrilled to be playing tomorrow. I didn’t anticipate that at the beginning of the week,” Molaghan said. “We’ll just, as they say, take it one game at a time.”

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