The Portage Padres are up 1-nothing in their best-of-5 Santa Clara Baseball League final with Minnedosa.

They won 2-0 last night in Minnedosa for game 1. Padres' Pitcher Jason Kirkland pitched a complete game, and fielder Rod McLeod says he did exactly what was needed.

"He was just pitching to contact and letting the defense work for him. We all played sound defensively, he got a lot of ground balls, a couple fly-ball outs -- he didn't have as many strike-out's as he did in that Carberry performance -- but we helped him out and got the W together."

The Padres scored their runs in the 4th inning. McLeod says they need to carry over their momentum from the road win, and get a little better at the plate.

"We have confidence that we're up 1-0, up in the series. We didn't hit our best but hopefully, our bats will come alive and we can take a stranglehold tonight."

Game 2 is Thursday in Portage at 6:30 p.m. at Rotary Republic Park.