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A lighter work load has made Greg Lunski even harder to hit than normal this season.

With a deeper pitching staff, Lunski hasn't had to pile up as many innings this season and as a result, he’s having one of his best seasons for the Jamestown Miller Lite Merchants.

The veteran right-hander was in fine form Friday night as he went all nine innings in a 5-1 win over the Mayville Red Caps in the opening game of the Class AAA state tournament at Jack Brown Stadium.

"The innings are more spread out this year, that helps," said Lunski, who improved to 7-0 on the season. His ERA remains well under 1.00. "Two or three years ago at this time I might have 80 or 90 innings. This year I have like 46. That makes a pretty big difference."

The Red Caps did get nine hits off the Merchants' ace, but had just one runner reach second base in the first seven innings. They broke through in the eighth inning when Alex Berry doubled and then scored on his brother Christian's RBI single.

That made it 3-1 Merchants, but Bryan Erstad put it out of reach with a two-run single in the bottom of the eighth, making it 5-1.

Lunski finished with seven strikeouts and did not walk a single batter, which is the norm.

"I didn't feel that good, really. ... I was able to locate my fastball on the outside corner against the lefties, that was the biggest thing that seemed to help me," he said.

The Merchants advance to today's semifinal game at 2 p.m.

Erstad and Preston Jensen each had two hits for the Merchants.

Alex Berry had three of the Red Caps' nine hits. Mickey Berry, Seth Tollefson and Jace Pederson had two each.

Mickey Berry pitched well for the Red Caps. The former Mayville State star allowed just seven hits and fanned five.