Before they could party at the prom Saturday night, the St. Aloysius Flashes had to put in a long, hard day of work on the baseball field.

Lee Simpson went 2-for-4 with a double and two RBIs, Lane Middleton doubled and drove in two runs, and the Flashes finished a doubleheader sweep of Manchester Academy with a 6-5 win in game two at Basinsky Field.

St. Al won the first game 11-2.

“It’s huge to come out and get a series win after losing game one,” Simpson said. “We didn’t play our best baseball the first game. They played some good defense and got a couple of cheap hits on us. But we came back out today, and everybody one through nine was driving the ball and we had unbelievable pitching.”

Most of the team rushed out of the ballpark after more than six hours of baseball to get ready for the school’s prom later Saturday night. They had plenty to celebrate.

Besides avenging a loss earlier in the week, the doubleheader sweep allowed the Flashes to keep pace at the top of the District 3-AAA standings. St. Al improved its record to 5-1 in the district (9-4 overall), and moved a game ahead of Manchester (10-6, 4-2) for second place.

Central Hinds is in first place with a 6-0 district record.

“This team is hitting their stride at the right time. We weren’t all together there in the first couple of non-district games, but we’re hitting our stride definitely at the right time,” Simpson said.

St. Al had a relatively easy time of it in game one Saturday, but had to scratch and claw to win game two.

Blayke Dendy doubled in one run and scored another on a base hit by Ravi Patel to stake Manchester to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning. St. Al answered back, however, by batting around and scoring three times in the bottom of the first.

Middleton tied the game with a two-run single, then scored the go-ahead run on Simpson’s bloop double to right field.

“We’ve been hitting good, and we answered the bell. Plain and simple,” Simpson said.

The Flashes added another run in the third inning with an RBI double by Tyler Breithaupt, one more in the fourth on an RBI single by Simpson, and made it 6-2 in the fifth when Kieran Theriot scored on a misplayed fly ball with two outs.

Things got tight in the sixth inning, however, as Manchester rallied for three runs.

RBI singles by Lake Clay, Warner Adcock and Warner Griffin pulled the Mavericks within a run, and they had the bases loaded with two outs. St. Al pitcher Casey Griffith induced a weak grounder by Patel to get out of the jam, and then retired the side in order in the seventh to nail down the save.

Griffith took the loss in St. Al’s 8-4 setback against Manchester on Tuesday, but bounced back nicely on Saturday. He pitched the last 1 2/3 innings, allowed one infield hit and a walk, and struck out two.

Garrett Breithaupt pitched the first 2 1/3 innings and earned the win.

“Ever since (Griffith) came back the next day, he said, ‘I want the ball,’” St. Al coach Sid Naron said. “That was a great thing to get him back in there. We didn’t want anybody else in that spot anyway, and I’m glad he was able to pull through.”