FAIRHOPE, Ala. — Daphne center fielder Roger Lavoie gave the Fairhope Pirates a sigh of relief Friday night. Then took it away.

With the Pirates trailing by one run in the bottom of the seventh inning with two out at Fairhope, Lavoie made a diving attempt in short right-center to win the game for the Trojans when the ball bounced out of his glove to keep the Pirates hope of retaining the 6A Area 3 title alive.

But on the next at bat, Lavoie made another diving grab in the right-center gap and held on for the 7-6 DHS win in the championship game.

Under Alabama High School Athletic Association guidelines, the deciding game of the Area 3 championship came down to the second game in the three-game series at Volanta Park in Fairhope. Third games are not counted toward area records unless needed for tie breaking. The No.1 ranked Pirates had blasted the Trojans off the Daphne home field 10-0 in five innings the night before. In game three Friday, more of the same as Fairhope won 11-1 in five.

“That’s baseball,” said DHS coach Joe Hutchins. “You can lose by 10 one night, then come back and win by one, or 10. The main thing is to not lose composure and get rattled. They rattled us Thursday, but we shook it off and came ready to play tonight. I’m proud of how we did that. Dylan (Thomas) came through for us (pitching) tonight and we responded at the plate. We had a young pitcher in Dylan, but he stayed ahead of the hitters and did a great job. We got some clutch hits for him and came through on defense and got it done. You don’t beat a team like Fairhope without putting good pitching, defense and hitting all together.”

The Trojans improved to 17-15 overall and claimed the area crown with a 5-1 league finish and their only area loss to the Pirates.

Fairhope will be the Area 3 second seed in the first round of the playoffs. The Pirates finished the series with a 27-3 record overall and a 4-2 area mark. The Foley Lions took an area victory over the Pirates last week.

Fairhope coach Stu Fuller said his team played hard in the title game, but struggled at the plate.

“The Thomas kid did a good job for them all night,” he said. “He kept us off balance and made us hit a lot of pop-ups. We just couldn’t get it done with our bats.”

Thomas, a right-handed sophomore, went the distance for the win and scattered 10 hits to improve to 4-0.

At the plate the Trojans hit two early-inning home runs to establish a 5-0 lead by the second. Kyle Reese (3-for-3, three RBIs) hit the first of his two home runs, a one-out solo shot in the top of the first and Dillon Schaniel added a three-run homer in the second.

The Pirates battled back to make it 5-4 in the fifth with homers by Hunter Ellenburg (2-for-3, four RBIs) and Justin Hathcock as well as a two-out RBI single by Peyton Fuller.

But Reese added a two-run homer in the top of the sixth to give Daphne a 7-4 lead. Ellenburg then answered in the bottom of the sixth with a two-run blast to right. The tying run then reached first and would have likely scored if Lavoie had missed his second, game-ending dive.

In the night cap, Corey Childress (1-1) got a three-hit win with five strikeouts in the 11-1, five-inning Pirate win.

Robert Baugh had three RBIs, including the game ender. Beecher Faust was 2-for-3 with a pair of RBIs and Jerrod Hathcock went 3-for-3 with a double and an RBI for FHS. Schaniel was 2-for-3 with a solo home-run for DHS.

On Thursday night, Fairhope took a 10-0 win at Daphne to even the area race. FHS starter Toby Thomas remained undefeated at 7-0 with the one-hit, eight-K shutout at Trojan Field.

Lavoie’s single in the bottom of the fifth prevented the no-hitter. Chase Domino led the Pirates with a two-run single and an RBI double, Peyton Fuller had three hits with two RBIs and Justin Hathcock had an RBI single.