The Pilgrim baseball team cruised to an 8-1 win over rival Toll Gate last week to snap a three-game losing streak.

The Pats were led by starting pitcher AJ Ferreira, who earned the win on the mound by throwing six innings and allowing just one run while striking out six batters. Ferreira also went 1-for-4 at the plate, knocking in a run.

Pilgrim’s offense took off early, getting two runs in the first inning and another in the second to grab the 3-0 lead to set the tone.

“Before the game I told them, we needed pitching and to make the plays. We haven’t been making the plays. Today, though, we did and AJ was phenomenal. This was his second start and he was shutting guys down, making them beat the ball to the ground, that’s all you can ask for,” said Pilgrim coach Nolan Landy.

Toll Gate had opportunities to get on the board, getting runners in scoring position in the first, fourth and sixth innings. Pilgrim’s pitching and defense would get the job done while the Titans were unable to get the clutch hit.

“We just missed on some opportunities, we left guys in scoring position, we have to work on that. The past few games we have been getting guys in scoring position but just haven’t gotten the big hit. We are just one big hit away from breaking things open,” said Toll Gate coach Nick Durand.

“It’s big for confidence and I trust my teammates a lot. I want them to know that I trust them and luckily we were able to get out of those innings,” added Ferreira. “It was great to see (us take off offensively), too. We can hit, we can put the bat on the ball, but we just haven’t been able to get hit after hit.”

Henry Kearns, Robert Vale, Chace Roberts and Jack McConnell all picked up RBI for Pilgrim.

“We wanted to jump on them early. The past couple of games we have had nothing on offense, so today we wanted to get ahead early, we took some extended BP and we jumped on them,” said Landy.

Jack Smith closed out the show for Pilgrim, pitching the final inning and picking up a strikeout.

Dylan Robbins would knock in Toll Gate’s lone run in the sixth inning. Brayden Ogden pitched 3 ⅔ innings for the Titans, allowing two runs and picking up a strikeout. Geoffrey Laliberte picked up three strikeouts in relief.

The Pats improved to 2-3 with the win while Toll Gate fell to 1-3. Ferreira was glad to see the Pats get back in the win column and to play with more enthusiasm.

“We just had to bring the passion today. We have been lacking it a little bit and we’ve been playing OK in practice, but we just needed to translate that onto the field,” Ferreira said. “They’re our crosstown rivals so that brings something out of you.”