When the bell rang to start the MAIS Class AAA playoffs Tuesday night, St. Aloysius did not answer.

The Flashes only mustered four hits, committed two costly errors that led to the bulk of Silliman Institute’s runs, and lost 8-2 in Game 1 of a first-round series at Bazinksy Field.

“It’s never easy. To beat a team of this caliber, you have to bring every aspect of the game and we didn’t do that,” St. Al coach Sid Naron said.

Zach Kelly went 3-for-4 with a double and four RBIs for Silliman (17-8), the defending Class AAA champion. The Wildcats can end St. Al’s (16-8) season by winning Game 2 Friday at 4:30 p.m. in Clinton, La. If St. Al wins, Game 3 of the best-of-three series will follow immediately afterward.

“I feel confident, but I also know we can’t take anything for granted,” Silliman coach John Beauchamp said. “They’re a good team, and we have to mentally prepare and stay focused for them.”

The Flashes did little against Silliman pitcher Tre’ Berthelot in Game 1. He only needed 81 pitches to throw a complete game, didn’t walk a batter, and retired the first nine men he faced before Lane Hynum led off the fourth inning with a single.

Both of St. Al’s runs came in the sixth inning, when Landon Middleton delivered a two-run, two-out single with the bases loaded. Berthelot got the next batter, Garrett Breithaupt, to fly out to center to end the threat.

Part of Berthelot’s dominance stemmed from the Flashes’ approach. They were trying to be aggressive early in the count and it wound up backfiring. Eight of St. Al’s 21 outs were recorded off of first-pitch swings. Another came on the second pitch. Berthelot did not have a strikeout, mainly because the Flashes never let him get deep in the count before hacking away.

St. Al also had 13 fly ball outs.

“We were really going off the scouting report on this guy. He has a good secondary and a decent change up. Our approach kind of bit us,” Naron said. “His fastball was what we were sitting on. We got some good pitches to hit in those first-pitch counts and we mishit some of those balls. You can’t hit the ball in the air and expect to win playoff games.”

St. Al’s Casey Griffith also pitched well, but was undone by a couple of bad defensive plays and some timely hits by Silliman — and Kelly in particular.

With Silliman leading 1-0 in the top of the fourth, and runners at first and second with one out, Griffith got Cole Jackson to hit a grounder to first. St. Al’s Rett Verhine threw across the diamond to third, but it sailed high and off the glove of Lee Simpson.

One run scored on the error, and two batters later Kelly hit a two-run single to give Silliman a 4-0 lead.

“That’s something you work on every day. I’m not going to sit here and fault Rett, but at the same time that’s a play that has to be made. If he could do it all over again, he makes that play 10 out of 10 times,” Naron said. “That definitely did not lose the game. Offensively is what let us down and a few defensive miscues.”

In the top of the sixth, a two-out walk and a single by Myles Simmons brought Kelly to the plate again. He blasted a double off the base of the wall in right center field to plate both runners and make it 7-0.

Silliman added one more run following an error in the seventh inning.

Griffith pitched 5 2/3 innings before giving way to Tyler Breithaupt, who gave up the double to Kelly. Griffith allowed six runs, only three of them earned, seven hits and four walks. He struck out five.

“I thought Casey Griffith threw tremendously well. I thought that was one of his best outings, and the scoreboard didn’t show it. Offensively, we didn’t get anything going for him early on when he was keeping a really solid offensive lineup in check,” Naron said. “We didn’t make the plays behind him, we didn’t get the two-out hits, we didn’t execute offensively, and ultimately in playoff time that’s when players have to make plays. We didn’t do that today.”

ST. ALOYSIUS VS. SILLIMAN

Game 1: Silliman 8, St. Aloysius 2

Game 2: Friday, 4:30 p.m., at Silliman

Game 3: Friday, 7 p.m., at Silliman (if necessary)