NORTH BERWICK — In their first four games of the season, the Biddeford Tigers had a chance to win in the seventh inning three times only to fall just short.

On Tuesday, the Biddeford baseball team finally broke that streak as the Tigers took a 4-0 lead into the seventh inning and were able to hold off a late rally from homestanding Noble to secure the shutout.

“It feels good to get that first win. We’ve kind of been close and it’s good to just kind of get over the hump there,” said Biddeford coach Keith Leblanc. “We’ve lost three games in the seventh inning, we could have easily been 3-1 with a couple different situations, but it’s definitely nice to get that first win.”

The Tigers took advantage of two walks, two hit batters, one error and a single from Kerry Crepeau to score four runs in the top of the first inning. Kerry Crepeau, Brady Crepeau, Jason Vadnais and Joey Curit would all cross the plate in the inning.

“I think we only had three hits on the day, but if you can get on base whether it’s a walk, getting hit or on an error, you just put some pressure on them,” said Leblanc.

Vadnais would take the hill for the Tigers and was happy to have a big lead before throwing his first pitch.

“(I felt) comfortable after the first inning with four runs, it gets you confident when you start to pitch,” said Vadnais.

Vadnais would allow just three hits in seven innings of work and the Tigers supported him with solid defense.

“He was cruising pretty good. We got him that early 4-0 lead and sometimes that takes some pressure off the pitcher … (he) let his defense do the work and the defense played great today,” said Leblanc.

The Knights would put two runners on with one out in the seventh inning, but Vadnais was able to record a strikeout and induce an easy groundout to end the game.

“I walked one and one had a pretty good hit, but I just had to throw strikes and I had confidence in my defense,” said Vadnais, who earned his first career varsity win.

Brady Crepeau and Vadnais had the other hits on the day for Biddeford, which improved to 1-4 with the win.

Leblanc believes Tuesday’s win over Noble will give his team confidence moving forward.

“I think it will help a little bit (and) just kind of get us going,” said Leblanc. “It’s a long season and I kept trying to tell the guys, ‘don’t get down on yourself.’ We still have 11 games left now and still a lot of time to earn some points, make the playoffs and go from there.”

The Tigers will host Scarborough on Thursday.

— Sports Editor Pat McDonald can be reached at [email protected] or at 282-1535 ext. 322. Follow the Journal Tribune Sports Department on Twitter @ JournalTsports.