WEST BLOOMFIELD >> With two Division 1 southpaws going against each other, the coaches of Lakeland and West Bloomfield had similar visions of what it would take to win Tuesday afternoon’s regional semifinal.

Both were pretty spot-on, and it was the Lakers who won 2-0 on their home soil behind five near-perfect frames by senior Slade Moore.

“(Three) was the number, actually,” Lakeland head coach Aaron Bell said. “We saw before the game we felt like we needed three runs to win, and obviously that was right. We just unfortunately didn’t get them.”

When asked if there was a magic number in mind, Lakers head coach Josh Birnberg responded, “The exact number we scored. We felt good with two. Anytime you send Slade Moore to the mound, you feel like you have a great chance to win. He didn’t have his best stuff last Saturday (in districts against Walled Lake Central), and I know him really well from coaching him the last four years in high school and the summer, and I knew he was coming with his best stuff today.

“Boy, did he ever? That was a phenomenal job.”

On the bump, Moore went five innings and fanned eight, his only blemish a two-out, opposite-field double allowed to Noah Hogle in the second inning.

“I threw about 100 pitches last week, too, so I was on a little short rest, but the arm felt pretty good,” Moore said. “I just tried to throw as many strikes as I could, got some strikeouts, and it went well today.”

He helped his own cause in the first inning as well. Following a sacrifice fly by Logan Scheidt that scored Cameron LaFlamme, who had walked, the Michigan commit cranked a slider over the wall to make it a two-run lead for West Bloomfield, who scored both runs off the Eagles (30-11) with two outs.

“What a moment for him to send one onto the softball field over the fence in left,” Birnberg said. “That thing was just gone right off the bat. I mean, what a performance from him. Probably one of the best in the history of the school, and he sure as hell deserves it because he’s one of the best ever to come through here.”

It was one of the few mistakes that Moore’s opposite, Jackson Miller (Bowling Green), made over his six innings. The only other hit he allowed was a bunt single by Connor Strong in the second. Otherwise, Miller, who recently shattered the program’s single-season strikeout record, allowed three walks and struck out nine in the defeat.

“Jack, he struggled in that first inning a bit, then he bared down and was just the guy we’ve seen all year,” Bell said. “I know those guys were a little nervous to see him, he just had a little rough inning with the start. But man, you know, I couldn’t be more proud. We had an outstanding season, and in games like this when you’re going against a team with an outstanding pitcher on the other side, one inning can be the outcome of the game, and that’s what it was.”

A future Wolverine began the job for West Bloomfield (30-10) and an eventual Spartan finished it off. Stevie Fountain took over and tossed two innings of hitless ball to finish the job for the Lakers.

“Slade threw a really good game today and set the tone,” Fountain said. “I knew a lot of these (Lakeland) guys, played travel with them, little league, so you know, I was confident. I felt like I knew what they could do. And we still have good arms for Saturday, which is huge for us.”

Last season ended with eventual D1 finalist Brother Rice beating the Lakers on their own field in a district final, and they were reluctant to watch it end in identical fashion this time.

“To be able to do it on this field just makes it that much more special,” Birnberg said. “It would have been great no matter what — winning is always the best — but to do it here, with this being the senior’s last game on this field, what a way to go out. I don’t know if we could have drew it up any better than this.”

West Bloomfield will face the defending state champs, Northville (21-10), in Saturday’s regional final at Novi. If the Lakers win, they would play a quarterfinal later that afternoon against either Hartland or the winner of Okemos and Battle Creek Lakeview.