Pine-Richland senior Vinny Nittoli holds a steadfast belief in two of baseball's oldest axioms.

"Throw strikes and good things happen," he said, followed soon thereafter by: "And when you are hitting, if you put the ball in play, good things will happen."

Nittoli did both yesterday, and good things did happen.

Pine-Richland (19-2) claimed a 3-0 victory yesterday against Kiski Area (11-8) in a WPIAL Class AAAA semifinal at North Allegheny on the strength of Nittoli's dominant, no-frills, pitching and his solid contact in a bases-loaded situation that forced an error.

With the victory, the Rams advanced to the championship to face North Allegheny, which defeated Butler, 12-8, at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Consol Energy Park.

The Rams will play for a chance to lift that WPIAL trophy because of Nittoli, who tossed a four-hitter with eight strikeouts.

"He just goes out there and does what he's supposed to," Pine-Richland coach Kurt Wolfe said. "He is so efficient."

Nittoli was particularly efficient against the bottom of the Kiski Area order, retiring hitters 6-9 in the order with fastballs, as they went a combined 1 for 12 with six strikeouts.

That was just the half of it, though. There was also that "put the ball in play and good things will happen" end of the deal.

Kiski Area pitcher Willie Nelson -- who had a four-hit, complete-game effort in the loss -- was the victim of bad luck when his defense had troubles in the third.

With bases loaded and one out in a scoreless game, Nittoli -- the No. 2 hitter in the Rams' lineup --hit a screaming two-hopper at Kiski Area shortstop Eric Weyant.

"I thought it was a double play, definitely," Nittoli said. "I hit it so hard right at him. So I just put my head down and started running hard to first."

When Nittoli looked up, the baseball was in right field. Weyant fielded the ball cleanly but made an errant throw to second baseman Jon Shaffer, which allowed two Pine-Richland runners to score.

From there, the Rams went on to tack on a third run in the inning, which proved more than enough.