It wasn't the way the Portage Padres were hoping to open the Santa Clara Baseball League Semifinal Wednesday. They fell 8-1 to the Carberry Royals and trail the best-of-three series 1-0 heading back to Carberry Monday night.

Royals' pitcher Daylan Creasy gave up just one run through seven innings pitched, and the defence behind him was playing great with three double plays on the night.

Creasy hit an RBI single in the seventh inning to cap off a great day on the mound. (Photo by Aaron Wilgosh)

"Our defence was great in Game 1," says Creasy. "They've been great all playoffs here and I'm very thankful."

Portage seemed to struggle all over the field with several errors, and a tough outing for pitcher Jason Kirkland.

"Creasy had a lot of ground ball outs this game," says Padres' Rod McLeod. "We've got some time off between games and we usually like to go every second day but we'll hopefully be ready to go then."

The series now heads to Carberry for Game 2 Monday night.