DuBOIS — Back where it’s used to being, the Redbank Valley Bulldogs baseball team returned to the District 9 Class 2A Championship game with a 2-1 win over Kane Thursday afternoon at Showers Field.

Jaxon Huffman took a shutout into the sixth inning before giving up Kane’s only run, then Braylon Wagner struck out three of the four batters he faced in the seventh to seal the win to face Moniteau in Monday’s final at Showers Field starting at 11 a.m.

“This is where they wanted to be, where I would hope that they would get themselves, and they do it,” said Redbank Valley head coach Dave Hepler, whose team improved to 15-5 with their seventh win in eight games. “All I do is put the lineup together. These guys go out and perform every day and bring it, and you see the results. That’s why they’ve won three in a row.”

The Bulldogs scored runs in the first and second innings and made it stand from there. Huffman was lights-out, especially through the first five innings, as he gave up three hits with nine strikeouts on 76 pitches after striking out the side on 11 pitches in the fifth.

“It was just exactly what I’d hoped to see from Jaxon. He was hitting his spots,” Hepler said. “I thought maybe we did or didn’t get a couple of calls, but that is what it is. You live with it, you move on. He battled back, he got outs when we needed outs. It was exactly what you would expect. I would have loved to have scored three times as many runs, but I mean, we’ll take a 2-1 win.”

For Huffman, it was a matter of pounding the strike zone with fastballs, then switching the strategy later.

“I felt like I was throwing pretty hard at the beginning of the game, felt like I started throwing harder toward the middle, and then toward the end, I started to taper off. That’s when I started to use my curveball more to make them go after that, whenever they were expecting a fastball,” Huffman said.

Huffman got the offense he needed with a bases-loaded walk in the first and sacrifice fly in the second inning.

With one out in the bottom of the first, Kane starter Phinn Chamberlain walked Carson Gould before Braylon Wagner and Huffman singled to load the bases. Brock George drew the walk that pushed home Gould.

Still in business for more, the Bulldogs ran themselves out of the inning when Huffman, at second, strayed too far off the base on Kaden Sturgeon’s soft liner into center. Instead of Wagner scoring from third on a sacrifice fly, Huffman was doubled up at second to end the inning.

From there, the Bulldogs didn’t do much at all against Chamberlain, who allowed just two hits with no walks and four strikeouts the final four innings.

The Wolves (10-8) scored their run in the top of the sixth after two outs and nobody on base. Chamberlain doubled, and Isaiah Smith followed with a single that scored courtesy runner Will Silfies.

Soren Swanson singled Smith to second, but Huffman ended the threat by striking out Lukas Ledwith.

Huffman’s final line in a 95-pitch outing in six innings — 10 strikeouts and six hits allowed with no walks. With 10 pitches still available in his outing, the coaching staff elected to go to Wagner.

“We would rather in that situation just let Braylon start with a fresh slate,” Hepler said.

Wagner walked the second batter of the seventh and struck out the other three to finish off the semifinal win and the Bulldogs’ ninth straight playoff win.