The defending Border West Baseball League champion Pilot Mound Pilots staved off elimination with a 9-3 win over the Morden Mohawks Saturday night.

"Pretty sure we scored in each of the three innings for sure. We had guys on and left fourteen guys on base," explained coach Anthony Friesen. "It's a bad number to have, but at the same time guys were getting on and that's what you need to win a ball game."

The offence started on the first batter when Vince Maxwell, who went five-for-five at the dish, hit a solo shot off Mohawks starter Blake Hartry. Maxwell also recorded four singles to go along with his home run.

The Pilots bats would strike again in the second as they sent 10 batters to the plate with four of them coming around to score. Zach Mayo, Clint Maxwell, Robi Lewarne, and Vince came around to score in the inning to make it 5-0 for the Pilots.

Clint scored Pilot Mound's six run in the bottom half of the third.

Morden wasn't going to go down without a fight and rallied for a pair in the fifth when Steve Mullin and Sam Bryson were able to come around and score to make it 5-2. The Pilots got on the sticks once again and replied with their 7th and 8th of the game, leading 8-2 after five innings of play.

After reaching on a single Chris Moffatt stole second and was hit home by Sam Bryson.

Clint came across to score for the third time in the game on a wild pitch to make it 9-3.

"It definitely wasn't our best effort. It seemed like we were a little flat here today. I thought being up 2-0 we'd have that spark, wanting to end the series here. They're a tough team and finished first in the regular season for a reason," said Mohawks manager Brent Laverty. "We knew they were going to battle and weren't going to give us the season. It was an expected effort from them and it was a game where they found the holes and we didn't. We just didn't have our best effort and need to come out ready to play."

Hartry got the start on the bump for Morden and gave up eight runs on eleven hits, walked eight, and struck out three. Jesse Mutcheson finished the final inning for Morden and allowed one run on a hit and struck out one.

Meanwhile, Pilots starter Brad McLeod tossed a complete game six-hitter, while allowing three runs, and striking out five along the way.

Game four of this series will be played Sunday afternoon at Buhler Park in Morden at 2:00 p.m.