Darryl Craig threw a complete game seven-hitter as the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball club defeated the London Majors 3-1 at Christie Pits on Sunday afternoon.

Toronto led 1-0 until a two-run eighth inning, highlighted by a Brian Ivan double and a Damon Topolie sac fly.

Craig (1-0) allowed one run on seven hits and struck out six.

The Leafs offence produced seven hits with Dan Gibbons getting three. Jeremy Walker, Topolie and Warren Bradley got the others. Walker drove in the other RBI.

Pierre Deschenes (0-1) went 8 1/3 innings for the Majors. He surrendered three earned runs on seven hits, struck out eight and walking three.

London got five singles, one double and a Will Richards solo shot in the ninth inning.

Toronto now leads the best-of-seven series 3-2 with game six scheduled in London for Monday night.

It was a classic pitchers duel until the Leafs manufactured two late runs to seal the deal.

The Leafs opened the scoring with one in the top of the first.

The last time Deschenes faced the Leafs, he had a no-hitter going into the bottom of the seventh but gave up singles to Gibbons and Rob Gillis.

On Sunday, the Leafs opened the scoring in the top of the first on two singles and a walk.

With two outs, Kyle Degrace walked, stole second, went to third on an infield single by Gibbons and came home on a Walker base hit to left.

The Majors had a chance to tie the score in the top of the third but failed in two attempts to move the runner to third with less than two outs.

Mason Reilly led off with a double but Vince Burke popped up a sac bunt attempt and Jordan Dreiling flew out to right. Kyle Piwowarczyk stroked a two-out single to centre but Reilly was held at third base. Craig toughened and got Richards on a grounder to end the inning.

That was the only jam Craig faced as the Majors didn’t get a runner in scoring position until the seventh when Ryan Cattrysse was hit by a pitch and advanced on a grounder to first.

“He was dominant,” Topolie said. “We needed someone to come in and shut down their bats. He did a phenomenal job of moving the ball in and out, hitting his spots and getting ahead of hitters. That’s how you pitch.”

“I felt pretty good,” Craig said. “I was around the plate all game. My fastball was pretty good. I located off speed stuff pretty well and kept them off balance.”

Meanwhile, the Leafs had their own offensive problems.

By getting ahead of the hitters, Deschenes limited the regular season’s best hitting team to two hits and two walks from the second to the seventh, fanning seven along the way.

“He was mixing fastballs and curve balls but he was hitting the inside and outside corner well,” Raul Borjas said. “He was very effective and it’s hard to adjust when he’s making those kinds of pitches.”

In the eighth, a flip-of-coin decision by the home plate umpire helped the Leafs pick up two important runs.

After Gibbons singled, Borjas appeared to offer at a Deschenes pitch but the ball hit him in the left wrist while swinging.

The umpire could have ruled the pitch a foul ball because the hand is considered part of the bat when swinging. Instead he sent Borjas to first base, as a hit batter.

“It’s a discretionary call by the umpire,” Borjas said. “It depends on how the umpire interprets that play. Some (umps) will call the hand part of the bat and some of them won’t. It ended up going our way.”

Ivan followed Borjas and hammered a screamer down the third base line to score Gibbons and send Borjas to third.

Josh Palmer came in to relieve Deschenes and gave up a sac fly to Topolie that plated Borjas.

Richards led off the ninth for London with a solo shot to right centre to make the score 3-1 but Craig rallied to get the complete game on a liner and two strikeouts.

If necessary, game seven is scheduled for Tuesday night at Christie Pits. First pitch is slated for 7:30 p.m.