BOARDMAN — Lakeside softball coach Kerri Weir doesn’t like her hitters to fall victim to the same kind of pitch on consecutive tosses.

In that vein, two hitters into the Dragons’ first at-bat in a Division I district semifinal battle with Mayfield on Monday, Weir had her hitters make an adjustment in the batter’s box.

The adjustment paid off in a big inning and a 3-2 victory over the Wildcats at Boardman Field of Dreams.

“We preach a lot about every pitch, whether it’s a curveball or not, to not let the pitcher get away with it two times in a row,” Weir said. “We want them to adjust in the box and make them throw different pitches. That’s something we talk about a lot.”

The Dragons (15-5) will play Brunswick, a 3-2 winner over Boardman in the other district semifinal on Monday, in the district championship today.

“I honestly don’t know a whole lot about (Brunswick),” Weir said. “I know they have a very good program. We’ll have to just see what happens.”

It will be the first time the Dragons play for a district title in Lakeside history.

“We’re right where we want to be,” Weir said. “We really believed coming in here we could win tonight. We’re right where we want to be right now.”

Lakeside struck for all three of its runs in the home half of the first after falling behind, 1-0, at the end of the first half-inning.

“They were legitimate hits,” Mayfield coach Angie Dunlap said. “They had four hits, one of them a double. They were all legitimate hits.”

“(The Lakeside hitters) took away (pitcher Nicole Sills’) best pitch, her curveball,” Mayfield assistant coach Kristen Heinaman said. “(Weir) had her batters move up in the box. She had them make the adjustment after the first two batters and that took away the curve. We had to throw pitches we haven’t used all year.”

Erica Villa led off the inning with a slap single but was erased when Mallory Zappitelli reached on a fielder’s choice. Zappitelli stole second and scored on a double to right-center by Christina Hutchison. Hutchison scored a batter later on a single up the middle by Miranda Newsome to give the Dragons a 2-1 advantage.

“We always want to start strong,” Newsome said. “We don’t want to get ourselves in a hole. I saw my teammates get on and it gave me confidence. If they could get hits, I could, too. We were jumping on the first good pitch.

“We came in the dugout (after the top of the first) and said it was just one run. When Villa got on, we realized we could score just as well as they did.”

Newsome moved to second on the throw home and scored Lakeside’s third and final run on Christine Misinec’s single up the middle.