Class 6A No. 5 Saraland got a strong pitching performance from Cam Laffitte and scored four runs in the top of the eighth inning to knock off Northridge 5-1 in Game 3 of their first-round playoff series on Saturday morning.

The teams split a Friday doubleheader that didn’t end until 12:15 a.m. They started Saturday’s Game 3 at 10 a.m. due to the threat of bad weather later in the day.

Laffitte pitched 7.1 innings, scattering six hits and allowing just one run. He struck out five and walked three. Daniel Osborne got the final two outs for the save.

“Cam gave up a homer in the first inning and never wavered,” Saraland coach Brett Boutwell said. “When he was at about 65 or 70 pitches, we talked about it as coaches. That has been about his max this year. He walked up and said, ‘Let me go the distance.’ Unbelievable gutsy performance.”

Laffitte finished with 118 pitches.

The teams went to extra innings tied at 1-1 but not before the Spartans (24-8) wiggled out of a scare in the bottom of the sixth. Cade Senn and Milo Obradovich opened the inning with singles. However, Laffitte got Jack Sanderson to pop out on a bunt attempt and induced a double play grounder by Evan Malone to end the threat.

“We knew they had to at least try to move those runners over and everyone in the dugout was just kind of silently thinking, ‘Pop it up, pop it up,’” Boutwell said. “Fortunately, that’s what happened then we got the double play. We preach all the time that good pitching and good defense wins, and that is what we got today.”

Saraland took charge in the eighth with RBI singles from Fuller Chisholm and Cooper Henson. Santae McWilliams was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to drive in the fourth run and Brooks Womble walked to drive in No. 5.

Northridge put one runner on in the bottom of the eighth, but Osborne came on to induce a double play to end it.

Chisholm and Jamison Curtis each had 2 hits for Saraland.

Logan Caldwell pitched seven innings of 1-run baseball for Northridge (17-10) but ran into trouble in the eighth. He was charged with all five runs on nine hits.

“Caldwell pitched outstanding for them,” Boutwell said. “We had some opportunities early, but we just didn’t capitalize. He finally started to labor a little, and we were able to get the rally started.”

Obradovich had a pair of hits for the Jaguars.

Saraland will host seventh-ranked Spanish Fort in the second round next week. The Toros and Spartans played a tense quarterfinal series a year ago at Spanish Fort that the Toros won in three games. Spanish Fort went on to finish as state runner-up.

“Our kids know what we got next week,” Boutwell said. “We just have to go out and play ball, but we have them at home.”

The two teams haven’t played since last year’s series.