Pitching and defense has been New Orleans’ strength this week during the All American Amateur Baseball Association Tournament.

The trend continued Thursday afternoon against Butler in a quarterfinal as starting right-hander Aidan Grab went seven strong innings and the Boosters played their fourth straight game without committing an error, then Will Delaune and Rhett Centanni each added a two-run homer to complement what has been the franchise’s hallmark over the history of the 80-year event.

Pool A winner New Orleans combined all three elements to dispatch Butler by scoring eight unanswered runs in an 8-1 victory at Roxbury Park’s Dee Dee Osborne Field.

“This was just a building block to get to the next one,” said Grab, a rising 6-foot-5, 200-pound freshman at Delgado Community College who induced 16 swings and misses and finished with five strikeouts and 101 pitches. “I feel like we’re in a good spot to just keep going.”

The Boosters face Martella’s Pharmacy, a 9-0 winner over 2024 champ Columbus, Friday in a semifinal.

New Orleans beat Butler 2-0 in pool play during the 2024 tournament. The Boosters lost in a 2024 quarterfinal to Mainline Pharmacy.

The Boosters relied on their usual recipe for success by waiting out Butler starter Tyler Vogel, who needed 99 pitches to get through five innings.

“It worked again for us,” New Orleans manager Doug Faust said. “We just tried to get the other starting pitcher to get his pitch count up a little bit. We took advantage of some walks and hit batters. Aidan was great for us, keeping them right there at one, just letting our offense try to catch up. Eventually, we’re going to have big swings like we had.”

In its second appearance in the AAABA Tournament, Butler advanced to the quarterfinals for the second consecutive season. The Allegheny Athletics finished 2-2 as the Pool B runner-up.

“It’s a great baseball team,” Butler coach Dan Helgert said of New Orleans. “We were still in it until the eighth when they plopped a couple bombs.”

Following Grab, Michael Hotard and Brandon Kragle each tossed a scoreless frame.

Butler, which finished with three hits and were without two key players due to injury, struck first in the top of the first inning. Nate Demchak led off with a single and then stole second base. A groundout moved him to third. Brayden Zeigler drew a walk to put runners on the corners. A double steal was called. Once catcher Josh Hoffmann’s throw went to second base, Demchak broke for the plate and scored. Both runners were safe.

New Orleans answered in the bottom half. Reed Duthu’s single and an error put two runners on with no one out. Hoffman was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Joe Monaghan drew a free pass, and Cooper Smith was plunked to force in a run as New Orleans led 2-1.

Bourgeois, who has nine knocks in four multi-hit games this week, added a two-out RBI single in the second.

Bourgeois produced three hits Thursday.

The Boosters, who left 14 runners on base, added one in the third on Delaune’s run-scoring single to left that landed just before a charging Colin Patterson to lead 4-1.

Grab cruised from there. The tall right-hander struck out three straight batters between the third and fourth innings, using a sharp slider to miss bats.

“He was locating his breaking ball for strikes,” Faust said of Grab. “That’s when he’s really good. He had a lot of called strikes on his breaking stuff.”

Grab made an early adjustment and was effective.

“The first inning was kind of rough, just trying to get used to the mound,” Grab said. “Once I was able to settle in, I had all my pitches and just kept going. I had good control of my slider today. I had good control of the sinker. Having those two were just big for me.”

Butler completed a 7-8-6-2 relay after Tyrin Kirklin’s single ricocheted off Patterson’s glove to get Smith out at home in the seventh.

New Orleans put the game away in the eighth. Delaune, who joined Centanni with two hits each, launched a first pitch from Carter Leviski well over the left-field fence. After a two-out error, Centanni demolished a 1-0 offering from Nate Kush to deep left-center field for a two-run blast.

Seth Helgert doubled for Butler in the third.

Jake Oswalt is a copy editor for The Tribune-Democrat. Follow him on Twitter @TheWizOfOz11.