CARTHAGE, Ill. — It is hard to beat the same team three times in one season and the West Hancock proved the saying with another dominating performance by freshman pitcher Lauren Stevenson.

Stevenson propelled the Titans to a Class 2A postseason regional semifinal win over Beardstown High School, 2-0, Wednesday.

The game was a pitchers’ duel with no scoring after the top of the first inning.

No Tiger even reached third base in the game nor did a Titan after the first inning.

Stevenson’s performance was needed against the Tigers (18-10), who owned victories of 8-0 and 7-1 over West Hancock this season.

Beardstown’s Khloe Kearns held the Titans to three hits in each of the previous two games with a combined 17 strikeouts. She surrendered just two hits Wednesday and struck out 11. And lost.

Stevenson had nine strikeouts, walked one and gave up three hits. And no runs.

“The fastball, up and in,” Stevenson said of her go-to pitch in the game. That set the Tigers up for the change-up that was effective in the later innings.

“I was a little bit nervous in the last inning,” she said. “I just had to focus so I could throw strikes.”

Of her 89 pitches, 65 were strikes.

The Titans had two errors, the Tigers one. But that error contributed to a Titans run.

Leadoff batter Stevenson, who had just moved up to the top of the batting order last week and responded with two home runs, drew a walk. It was Kearns’ only base on balls in the game.

Two outs later with designated hitter Isabel Brown at the plate, Stevenson stole second base. Brown doubled on an 0-1 pitch to score Stevenson.

“The first pitch was a high ball but I swung, missed, bad,” Brown said. “The next one looked down the middle so I swung. It was just a ground ball, but hard, left of the pitcher toward the second baseman.”

Brown came around to score when centerfielder Cami Montgomery put the ball in play, leading to the error that plated Brown for the game’s last run.

“It’s nerve-wracking to play the rest of the game (without scoring),” Brown said. “You’re just counting on those two runs.”

A strikeout ended the top of the first inning to start Kearns’ streak of seven outs by strikeouts from the end of the first inning to the end of the third with only Bailie Montgomery’s two-out single in the second inning among the seven outs.

Stevenson set the Tigers down in order in the first two innings then gave up a walk to start the third. That batter was erased on a Stevenson-to-Jaiyden Huston-to-Jadyn Climer double play. A ground out ended the inning.

The Tigers got their first hit of the game to lead off the fourth inning but a fielder’s choice and two Stevenson punchouts ended the frame.

A Titan error put a runner on in the bottom of the fifth inning but a fielder’s choice and a strikeout ended the inning.

The Tigers’ best inning was the sixth when they had consecutive one-out singles. Stevenson struck out each of the next two batters on three pitches.

Stevenson was hit by a pitch in the fifth inning and Titan catcher Lakinn Larson was hit by a pitch in the sixth inning. Those were the only two Titans to reach base since Bailie Montgomery in the second inning.

“I just stood there and the pitch hit me,” Larson said.

It knocked her helmet off and drew gasps from the crowd. A cut lip and consternation from teammates resulted but she stayed in the game.

She pointed out that Stevenson didn’t hit anyone.

“She pitched great. Everything was working,” Larson said. “Everything came together. She was throwing hard. She was throwing strikes. She had a really good changeup.”

The seventh inning was a pop out, an error, a ground out to second base and a ground out to Stevenson.

The Titans (12-13) advance to Friday’s regional final against Williamsville (17-13) in Carthage.