Edward McLeod hit a grand slam and freshman John Stowers struck out nine batters and hit a walk-off RBI single in the opener, while Taylor O’Dell fanned nine batters and worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the seventh inning of the nightcap to seal a 12-2, 8-6 sweep over visiting Marbury in the opening round of the Class 5A baseball playoffs at Bussie Greer Field on Friday night.

“Well, I’ve been doing this a long time and I tell our players that playoff baseball is playoff baseball,” St. Paul’s coach Andy Robbins said. “It always comes down to the wire and doing the little things well.”

RELATED: Friday playoff highlights, scores

The Saints improved to 20-7 overall and will advance to face the winner of the Valley-Tallassee series. Those two teams split on Friday.

The Bulldogs, who left 19 runners on base — including leaving the bases loaded three times in the series — concluded their season at 13-17.

“We knew what we were getting into coming down here,” Marbury coach Justin Deazey said. “They were ready for it. It just didn’t go our way today, but I’m proud of our guys.”

Stowers (4-3) scattered five hits and three walks in five innings of work to take the pitching win.

At the plate, McLeod was 3-for-4 with two runs scored, Stowers was 2-for-3 with two RBIs and Matt Browning 2-for-3 with an RBI for St. Paul’s, which scored four runs each in the bottom of the third, fifth and sixth innings.

McLeod hammered his grand slam over the left field wall in the third inning for a 4-0 lead, O’Dell had an RBI single, Browning a two-run double and Cade Horton and Stowers each had an RBI walk to make it 8-1 in the fifth. Browning stole home, Brooks McDonald brought in a run reaching on an error and Tate Johnston pushed a run across the plate on a fielder’s choice to set up Stower’s walk-off hit in the sixth.

Grant Thompson was 2-for-3, while Jack Bryson and Jacob Driver each had one RBI apiece for Marbury.

Starter Caleb Kenyon (3-1) gave up five runs off four hits and seven walks over four innings, while six different pitchers combined to give up 15 walks.

In the nightcap, the Bulldogs scored three runs in the bottom of the first inning, forcing the Saints to play catchup until posting three runs in the top of the sixth inning and holding on for the sweep.

O’Dell (6-0) finished the final four innings on the mound by scattering five hits and five walks while yielding only two runs to take the win in relief.

Reliever Ricky Sullivan gave up four runs — three earned — off three hits and one walk with two strikeouts in two innings to suffer the loss.

Jack Stowers had two RBIs, while Johnston was 2-for-2 with an RBI and two runs scored and John Stowers, McLeod, O’Dell and Bryon Martin added an RBI apiece for St. Paul’s.

Driver was 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI, Koen Sampley added three walks and two RBIs and Bryson, Dawson Smith and A.J. Carreon added an RBI apiece for Marbury.

Driver had an RBI double and Sampley a two-run single to give the Bulldogs a 3-0 lead. Kenyon scored on a wild pitch in the third, Carreon added an RBI single in the fifth, while Dawson Smith doubled and scored on an RBI single by Bryson in the seventh for the Bulldogs.

Martin sacrificed in a run in the top of the second to cut the lead to 3-1, McLeod pushed in a run reaching on an error and Jack Stowers drew a bases-loaded walk to tie the score at 3-all in the third, Browning drove in a run while reaching on an error in the fifth to tie things up at 4-apiece, John Stowers put down a sacrifice bunt and O’Dell and Jack Stowers reached on back-to-back errors that pushed in 2 additional runs as the Saints took a 7-5 lead.

Johnston added an RBI bunt on a fielder’s choice that allowed Martin to score on an unsuccessful throw to the plate for the final run.