Freshman pitcher Reed Evans was placed in an uneviable spot Saturday.

Taking the hill in a do-or-die Game 2, St. Aloysius needed a tour-de-force performance from him against Edinburg to keep its season alive.

They got it, and more.

Evans, making just his second start of the season, pitched a two-hit shutout and had three hits of his own at the plate as St. Aloysius evened the first-round Class 1A series with a 10-0 run-rule victory at Bazinsky Field.

“We knew he was going to throw strikes and we knew they were going to put it into play and we’d make plays behind him,” St. Al coach Clint Wilkerson said. “We knew he’d throw strikes, that’s why we went with him and he got a lot of ground balls.”

Evans’ effort couldn’t have been more economic. He threw only 67 pitches in his six-inning complete game. That saved the rest of the St. Al staff for Game 3, which will be Monday at Edinburg at 6 p.m.

Evans hit one batter, walked none and struck out three.

“He was hitting all of his spots, wasn’t missing much and when he did, he missed down,” catcher Brendan Beesley said. “I believed in him. Everybody believed him. Nine guys working together. Doesn’t get any better than that.”

The defense was stellar behind Evans and the Flashes pounded the rest of Edinburg’s staff to the tune of 10 runs off nine hits, including a six-run fifth that blew it open.

The offensive barrage forced Edinburg (15-5) to use both its No. 2 pitcher, Austin Vowell, and No. 3, Brandon Phillips. That doesn’t leave much behind ace Mitchell Wooten, who threw an arm-wringing 130 pitches in Friday’s 7-3 victory.

“I didn’t think this was our best effort,” Edinburg coach Rod Crumbley said. “I thought St. Al came out and played aggressive ball. We got our heads down, things didn’t go right and we need to mature a little more. Our pitching failed us a bit, we hit batters and you can’t do that and expect to win baseball games.”

Offensively, the Flashes started off slowly in the rainy, muggy conditions. They scratched a run across in the third as Pierson Waring drew a walk and scored on a two-out RBI double by Evans.

Two more went on the board in the bottom of the fourth. Regan Nosser and Matthew Foley were plunked by Vowell and a brilliantly placed sacrifice bunt by Judson Gatling moved them to second and third. Beesley was plunked to load the bases, then Waring’s sacrifice fly to deep right plated Nosser and a costly error scored Foley to give St. Al a 4-0 lead.

Edinburg’s Phillips came on in the fifth and plunked Stephen Evans with one out.

The floodgates opened, as Nosser blasted a double to put both he and Stephen Evans in scoring position. A passed ball scored Evans and Foley lanced a shot through the gap to score another. Gatling singled in the third run in the frame, an error allowed another to score and Waring finished off the six-run explosion with a two-RBI double off the fence in left.

The Eagles put runners at first and second in the sixth inning, but got an easy groundball to third for the second out and struck out Jay Maxey with a low fastball to end the game.