CUMBERLAND — Winning pitcher Connor Russell made his rounds without any fanfare and demonstrated his aplomb for seven strong innings.

He baffled Poland, and while the Knights suffered at the plate, Greely’s offense gave their pitcher a head start, scoring three quick runs in the first inning. The Rangers picked up two more in fifth and Russell remained steady at the helm as No. 2 Greely (15-3) dismissed No. 3 Poland (13-5) with a 5-0 victory in a Western Class B semifinal baseball game on a cloudy, warm Saturday afternoon.

“Russell was just nasty. You know what I mean,” Poland coach Mike Connor said. “All year long, off-speed stuff has given these guys trouble and it continued today. We’re a fastball, hitting team and he stayed away from that.”

Earlier in the season, the Knight dropped the Rangers, 3-0 — with Russell on the mound. But the senior pitcher knew how to handle the Knights this time around. He struck out seven batters and gave up just three hits in the shutout.

“It was a nice humid day, so the arm feels good,” Russell said. “I could have gone nine innings.”

“Connor was very poised. He seemed in control, both emotionally and physically because of the location of the ball with all his pitches,” Greely coach Derek Soule said. “He was as good as he’s ever been. He is 5-1 in the season and 10-1 in his career.”

In the first inning, Tom Bucholz started it off with hit and was followed Sam Porter’s double. Train Bailey singled and scored Bucholz. Porter came home with the second run on Mike McDevitt’s single. Chaz Reade smacked a single, scoring Bailey. The Rangers used five hits in that inning, putting starting pitcher Lukas Johnson in a rough position, but he did get himself out of that first-inning jam.

With a 3-0 lead, Russell had a head start and he didn’t budge for the mound for next six innings.

“From the first inning, we wanted to play with a lot of intensity and fire,” Soule said. “We didn’t want to wait while we were behind in Poland before we turned it up a notch. It was awesome to see the fire in their eyes in the first inning.”

In the fifth inning, Shields walked and moved to second on a wild pitch. He scored when he stole home. Miles Shields delivered the second run after getting on with walk and scoring Cal Soule’s single.

For the Knights, it was stop and go all the way thanks to Russell’s pitching. There were great back-to-back putouts by Poland catcher Tanner Marston, who demonstrated how intimidating his arm can be in a tight baseball game.

“He stepped up and made some pretty good defensive plays,” Connor said. “For a while he was hesitant to let it go … He’s gotten the confidence. He has started throw it around the last 10 games.”