SPANISH FORT, Alabama — The Toros won the first-round of the 5A state baseball playoffs Saturday in an intense and decisive 4-2 game-three showdown at home over St. Paul's on The Hill.

The young Toro club was forced to rebound from a 1-0 loss in game two after opening the series with a 3-1 victory. Spanish Fort improved to 29-7 and advanced to the second round series against the Rams at Faith Academy.

"I'm so proud of this team," said SFHS head coach Tommy Walker. "This team has achieved things that no one expected other than us and we're still not through. I still want to see them play some more. So, now we get to play at least one more week and we'll see what happens."

In the deciding game, Toro sophomore Will Luft went six innings and scattered eight hits for his fourth win in four varsity starts. Senior Andrew Daigle then came in for the one-hit, three strike-out save.

St. Paul’s took the first lead,1-0 in the top of the third on Murphy Moseley’s RBI single. Dalton Rentz then hit what appeared to be a deep-enough hit to advance the runner to third, but SF centerfielder Matt Hall threw a 250-foot rocket to teammate Jesse McCord for the tag to end the inning.

"Momentum shifter," Walker said. "Matt made a great throw last night to the plate and hit well for us, too. Good defense can do that. We made a lot of great defensive plays in this. Shane English was solid for us behind the plate. Made a lot of big blocks back there. We felt we had to be aggressive on the bases as well and were, but we still have some things to work on."

The Toros tied it on an RBI by Hall in the fourth to score Joel Poe and Hall then engaged the Saints in a run down which scored Tate Godwin as Hall made it safely back to first for the 2-1 SF lead.

The Saints came back to tie 2-2 in the top of the sixth on a SAC fly by Jalen Thompson but Hall doubled and Andrew Ferrell tripled in the SF sixth to retake the lead for good. Ferrell then scored the fourth run on a loose ball. Daigle, who transferred from St. Paul's then came to the mound.

"I'm so proud of Andrew Daigle to close that thing out," Walker added. "He transferred from St. Paul's last year and to be able to go out there and close against his old team was a lot of pressure. But he handled it well. This was a hard series. St. Paul’s was good but we did it when we had to.

“And (Will Luft) pitched outstanding. He made pitch after pitch after pitch with runners in scoring position and got out of it. we brought him up for his first varsity start after getting in a lot of JV innings and he came up and threw light out and has continued to impress.”

On Friday, The Toros won the post-season series opener 3-1 over St. Paul's, but the Saints edged Spanish Fort 1-0 in the night-cap to force the deciding game Saturday.

SF senior lefty Heath Brown (6-1) pitched a three-hit shutout through six innings and two-outs in the seventh, then yielded the ball to Jesse McCord for the final out save. It was the Toros' 28th win overall and their 12th victory in a row.

But Saints Ace Kevin Moore found a way to quiet the Bulls bats with 10 strikeouts, three hits and picked up an unearned run to get St. Paul's 20th win of the year in the second game with no more "L's" to spare.

Round two's best of three series will be played at Faith Academy with a doubleheader Friday and Saturday, if necessary.

"Faith is a quality team and I know we're going to lay it on the line," Walker said.