SAN MATEO — Serra High right-hander Logan Scott had a simple goal when he learned he would take the mound in the West Catholic Athletic League tournament opener Tuesday against St. Ignatius.

"Setting a dominant tone," said Scott, mindful that Serra would need three victories in three days to win the tourney.

The 6-foot-3, 210-pound senior did just that. Shaking off an unearned run in the first inning, Scott powered through St.Ignatius' lineup to lead No.1 seed Serra to a 6-1 victory.

Scott (8-0) allowed three hits, all singles, recorded six strikeouts, and walked one. He needed just 80 pitches to wrap up the complete game.

"You look at almost all of the at-bats at the end," St. Ignatius coach Ted Turkington said, "and he was getting ahead 0-1, 1-2."

(Scott) is overmatching a lot of guys, which is good to see because he has that kind of arm," Padres coach Pete Jensen said. "Now we need our next guy, our other guys to do the same thing."

Serra (23-6) advanced to play No.6 seed Riordan, a 4-3 winner at No.3 Mitty, in today's 7 p.m. semifinal at Santa Clara University. Junior Dan Chavez (1-0) gets the call on the mound tonight, and Jensen hopes to hand the ball to ace Ryan Allgrove (5-1) in Thursday's final.

A deep tournament run will likely hinge on eliminating the errors that Serra was able to survive against No.8 seed St.Ignatius. After the Padres fell behind 1-0 in the first by committing an infield throwing error on an attempted

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double play, Serra's new-look lineup paid immediate dividends.

Junior Tony Renda (3-for-4) hit a leadoff double, and Allgrove followed by singling him home. New No.5 batter Cody Larson put Serra ahead with a stand-up RBI double to left field.

The Padres continued to meet Jensen's goal of more run production as Renda crushed an RBI single in the fourth.

But a two-error sixth threatened to erase Serra's 3-1 lead.

With one out, Scott struck out Joey Murphy, only to see him take second on a dropped third strike and a throwing error. The Wildcats (13-17-1) looked primed to score on the next play as the ball squirted into left after a fielding error, but Serra left fielder Justin Maffei rifled a one-hop throw to nail Murphy at the plate.

A single put runners at first and third bases, but Scott induced a foul-out to get out of the inning unscathed.

"How we survived that, I don't know," said Jensen of the two-hit, two-error sixth.

Serra's batters gave Scott more of a cushion as Renda capped a three-hit, three-RBI day by greeting reliever Tom O'Malley with a first-pitch, two-run homer over the 37-foot-high left-field wall. Zack Turner, who went 2-for-4 in his initial cleanup slot duties, added a two-out RBI single to push the lead to 6-1.

On the heels of an uneven week that included a 12-inning win over sixth-place Sacred Heart Cathedral and then a 4-1 loss at WCAL co-champion Valley Christian, Serra players are ready to roll.

"I think this game got us back on track. We're going to roll from here," said Renda. "This week's for pride."