The Mooresville Blue Devils might want to think about relocating to Catawba County.

The current Catawba County Easter Baseball Classic title holders got four runs in the first inning Friday, including a three-run homer, and went on to defeat host Fred T. Foard 6-4 in the first round of the state 3A West baseball playoffs.

The Blue Devils (19-5) will host West Rowan, a 2-1 winner over Marvin Ridge, in the second round on Tuesday.

Mooresville, who roughed up the Catawba Valley Athletic Conference in this year's Easter tournament, got to Tigers starter Chad Rothlin early. Dylan West's opposite-field three-run home run gave the Blue Devils, the No. 2 seed from the North Piedmont Conference, plenty of breathing room. "You can't fault them, they come out and put you four runs down in the first inning...," Marcus Greer, Foard head coach said. "That takes away your strategy. (My guys) did what they could. (Mooresville was) the better team tonight."

A leadoff ground-rule double by Nate Abernathy started the inning, and he scored when Billy Nantz's sharp grounder to second was misplayed by Corey Eller. Jon Crucitti reached on a single, and with one out, West's line-drive home run to the short porch in right field put the visitors up 4-0 with 6 2/3 innings of baseball still to be played. "We were trying to play catchup for the whole game," Greer said.

After that, Rothlin settled in, but so did Mooresville starter Aubrey Meadows. Meadows fanned six, and threw six-hit ball — three by Rothlin — in a complete game effort. The Tigers (16-8) got on the board — and finally to Meadows — with two runs in the third to cut the deficit to 5-2.

After Nantz's RBI single in the top of the inning gave the Blue Devils a 5-0 lead, Jason Jinorio led the home-half off by reaching on a fielding error by West at shortstop, and moved to third on back-to-back singles from Rothlin and Landon Isenhour. Andrew Wyant followed by grounding into a forceout at second scoring Jinorio, but the throw from Abraham sailed into left field, allowing Rothlin to score. "They battled back, give them credit," Jeff Burchett, Mooresville head coach said. "We jumped on them pretty early there in the first couple innings, but, some teams would have died right there, and they didn't."

The Tigers pulled even closer in the fourth on a two-out RBI double from Rothlin that scored Jacob Bradshaw (walk), cutting the lead to 5-3. Mooresville upped its lead back to three at 6-3 in the top of the seventh on an RBI single from West that scored Meadows (double).

Fred T. Foard tried to put together a two-out rally in the bottom of the inning. Wyant reached on a walk, and Robert McKinney followed with a ground-rule double to left that put him and Wyant at second and third, respectively. Gage Ward's RBI infield single scored Wyant, pulling the Tigers within two, but Meadows got Mitchell Henderson to go down on a called strike 3 to end the game. "I was glad to see us get a jump on Rothlin early," Burchett said. "He gets stronger as the games goes as my guy does. This was a good win."

Rothlin was 3-for-4 with a double, an RBI and a run scored. McKinney was 2-for-4 with a double. Rothlin fanned four in the loss.

Mooresville was led by West, who had two hits, four RBIs, scored a run, stole a base, but also committed three errors. The top five of the Blue Devils lineup all scored a run.

In other area playoff results:

—West Henderson defeated visiting Maiden 16-1.
—Brevard defeated visiting Bandys 3-1.
—St. Stephens advanced with a 9-5 win over W-S Reagan.