ONEONTA - It was after the third inning when it became apparent - whoever scored first was going to win.

It wasn't going to be a slugfest, but a 1-0 finish after a one hour, 42-minute rain delay. It was a tightrope that the Auburn Doubledays have walked a few times this season, but more often than not, they were the team that finished first.

That wasn't the case on Sunday, despite opportunities to take the first game of a three-game playoff series against Oneonta. The Doubledays fell first, 1-0 in 11 innings.

“Once you play 11 innings like this, it's really what the playoffs are all about,” Doubledays pitcher Brett Cecil said. “We had two good teams playing their butts off, and there isn't much else you can do.”

With no outs and the bases loaded, Michael Sullivan singled on the second pitch delivered by Doubledays' reliever Nate Melek in the 11th and Casper Wells scored the winning run.

In what became as much of a defensive duel as a pitchers' duel, the Doubledays managed just four hits and had four runners in scoring position, but could simply not get one to cross home plate.

Starter Brett Cecil for the Doubledays and Jonathan Kibler for the Tigers went pitch for pitch for five innings until Cody Crowell replaced Cecil in the sixth. Kibler went eight innings, threw nine strikeouts, walked one and allowed only a Darin Mastroianni two-out double in the fourth.

Cecil had another solid outing himself, fanning five, walking three and allowing two inconsequential hits. Wells' leadoff triple in the fourth was the second time a Tiger runner was left stranded at third while Cecil was on the mound.

“I didn't have my fastball at all today really, speed or location,” Cecil said. “I felt that I made pitches when I needed to though. I think it's the first time I've ever had a leadoff triple and gotten out of it 1-2-3 after that, which I was really pumped about.”

All four Doubledays hurlers should be pumped about their performance. Crowell had three strikeouts in three innings, scattered two hits and one walk. Michael Barbara went the next two innings, and even though he got the loss, he pitched well with two strikeouts, a walk and four hits. He left the bases loaded for Melek.

“It was a tough situation for anyone to be in.” Doubledays manager Dennis Holmberg said. “Melek has been there before, you're just hoping that a guy hits a ground ball and the defense beats it out.”

“Our pitchers got us out of a lot of situations,” Cecil added. “They did a great job. I thought it was a very well played game by both sides. It was bad that we came out on the short end, but that was the type of game this was.”

Just as the Doubledays struggled offensively, so did the Tigers. They scattered nine hits overall, but left six runners stranded in the first 10 innings. Rudy Darrow got the win for the Tigers, his first of the season, after pitching just 1-3 of the last inning.

And now, just as Holmberg has told his team all season, the Doubledays must take two games of the series.

But today, they're going to start with one to avoid being swept in a series for the first time all year. A loss today at home would end the season sooner than many assumed.

“We've tried to encourage the players (to win two out of three) all year and now we've got to win the next two,” Holmberg said. “We're going to face a good arm tomorrow and they're going to face a good arm in (Marc) Rzepczynski. But at least we've got home field advantage.”