CISCO — After Merkel freshman pitcher Blaine Palmer needed just 12 pitches to retire the first five Cisco batters, Stephen Bird knew he needed to draw out his first at-bat.

Bird drew a six-pitch walk before scoring on Dawson White’s RBI double to jumpstart the Cisco offense which routed Merkel 12-0 at Cisco College on Friday to finish off a sweep of the Region I-3A bi-district series.

Cisco advances to face the winner of the Brock-Childress series next week.