All season long, St. Aloysius came up short in close games. Seven times they were involved in contests decided by one or two runs. Seven times, they lost.

Attempt No. 8 met with success, and made all the earlier frustration worthwhile.

Matthew Foley roped an RBI single to left field in the bottom of the seventh inning Friday night, scoring Andrew Collins with the winning run as the Flashes beat University Christian 3-2 in Game 1 of a first-round Class 1A playoff series.

St. Al (6-17) scored twice in the bottom of the seventh — Will Pierce led off with a double and later scored the tying run on a balk — to pull out the win.

“It feels amazing. We’ve struggled with that all year, not being able to finish games, and it feels great to be able to finish it. Especially in the playoffs,” said Foley, who went 2-for-4 with a pair of singles.

St. Al won its second consecutive playoff game. The last was two years ago, in the Class 1A championship game at Trustmark Park. There’s still a lot of ground to cover between now and another title celebration, but the Flashes can take the first step this afternoon. Game 2 of the best-of-three series is at University Christian at 3 p.m. Game 3, if necessary, will follow.

“It feels good being up one, but you have to calm yourself down and forget about tonight,” St. Al coach Derrik Boland said. “When you wake up tomorrow, tonight’s over with and you have to get out there and play seven innings, inning by inning and pitch by pitch. That’s how we have to roll with it.”

University Christian (12-8) scored both of its runs in the first two innings. Michael Allen walked and scored on a base hit by Landon Perkins in the first, then in the second inning Josh Dixon walked and eventually scored on an error as he tried to steal third.

Matt Bell knocked in a run for St. Al with a fielder’s choice in the bottom of the second to cut it to 2-1, and the game settled into a pitchers’ duel from there.

St. Al’s Josh Eargle walked three batters in the first two innings, then none after that. He finished with four strikeouts in seven innings, gave up seven hits and one earned run.

“I just had to get the feel for the game. I was nervous at first, trying to get comfortable in a big game. But my team played behind me all night. I kept us in it, but they backed me up all night with clutch hits,” Eargle said.

University Christian’s Adam McPhail also allowed seven hits, struck out six and didn’t walk a batter. He was his own worst enemy, though.

McPhail committed two balks. The second sent Pierce home with the tying run in the seventh inning. He also misplayed a bunt in the seventh inning, which allowed Pierce to get to third and Collins — who later scored the winning run — to reach base.

“I believe if we make that play, the worst that happens is we go into extra innings,” University Christian coach Jonathan Broome said of Collins’ bunt. “(McPhail) threw well. We just missed too many opportunities offensively, where he should’ve had a bigger lead going into that inning.”

With two outs, McPhail hit pinch-hitter George Tzotzolas to put runners at first and third. The next batter, Foley, ripped a fastball foul down the left field line.

Foley hopped down the first base line as the line drive drifted a couple feet foul, in a mix of excitement and frustration. He didn’t have to wait long to turn it into just plain excitement.

McPhail missed inside for a ball, then left another fastball over the plate. Foley hammered it into left field and Collins jogged home to give the Flashes the 3-2 victory.

“I was just sitting on fastball. When I hit that first one, I knew I was on it so that’s all I was looking for was a fastball to hit,” Foley said. “I’m never going to be able to forget it. It’s my first walk-off hit in my life and it feels amazing. I’m never going to be able to forget this one.”