The slender left-hander logged another vintage performance Friday as host North (22-5) dropped the curtain on Southwestern Randolph, 4-1, to qualify for next weekend’s best-of-three championship series.

“This is indescribable,” catcher Brad Canipe beamed during the festive, post-game celebration. “We’ve never been this deep in the playoffs. I’ve got chills up and down my back.”

Moore, an even-tempered, Cool Hand Luke of a moundsman, took the victory in stride. He hurled a complete-game one-hitter, struck out 11 and retired 12 of the last 13 Southwest batters. Only one ball — Chris Warren’s flare single to left-center in the third inning — escaped the infield.

“I was putting the ball wherever I wanted,” Moore explained after boosting his record to 12-2. “When I have command of my fastball and curveball like that, I can do a whole lot of things.”

Things like recording at least one strikeout in every inning but the second, when he induced two groundouts and a pop-up to second-baseman Eric Mowery.

And things like pounding his venomous heater both inside and out to silence a good-hitting Southwestern (20-9) team — one that had scored 38 runs in five postseason wins.

And finally, things like bending a knee-buckling curve that simply lived on the corners. It left opposing coach Chris Cook tipping his cap to the crafty senior.

“(Moore) pitched a great game,” said Cook. “With a kid throwing like that, sure we pressed. And that led to mistakes. I knew this was gonna have to be a mistake-free ballgame for us to win.”

North capitalized and took a 3-0 lead against losing pitcher Brandon Varner (5-4) in the bottom of the second. The sidearming junior issued a leadoff walk to Canipe and a one-out single to Cass Jarrett. When teammate Tad Ogg grounded a ball to shortstop Brett Welch, Canipe broke for home and scored a disputed run following a jarring collision with catcher Taylor Browne.

“If the catcher has the ball, the runner has to slide,” noted Cavs’ coach Bill Kesler. “That’s the high school rule. But he didn’t have it and he was blocking the plate, so legally Brad didn’t have to slide.”

North padded its lead moments later when Brandon Doby blasted a ground-rule double over the right-field fence. Ogg scored the third run of the inning on a balk.

“Once we got three, I knew we’d be OK,” said Kesler. “Three was gonna win it. Daniel wasn’t gonna blow that. At that point I was ready to go home.”

They got their fourth an inning later, when Mowery singled to right and alertly took second on an error, then scored on Canipe’s base hit to left.

“We wanted to come out and score runs early,” said Canipe. “That Ledford game (Tuesday’s 7-6 quarterfinal win) was way too close. We weren’t going to count on a last-inning squeeze bunt again.”

They didn’t have to. Southwestern scored its only run in the top of the fourth on a groundout by Lane Hunt, the slugger who had launched five home runs in the playoffs. “Yeah, but a four-run lead is pretty nice,” said Moore. “You don’t have to worry about a five-run homer.”

The rest of the match was classic Moore, who said he spent the first few innings “adjusting to the umpire’s tight strike zone.” In the seventh he got Hunt to foul out on an unhittable, high inside fastball, then fanned .371 hitter Chris Nall and teammate Russ Dubisky to seal the deal.

“Dan got pumped up and was hitting all his spots,” said Canipe. “He’s such a great pitcher. He pitches these great games for us. But he’s even better when he’s fired up like he was tonight.”