One swing of the bat by Braden Shaw lifted Princeton to a 2-1 win over Erie-Prophetstown in a Three Rivers East battle Thursday at Prather Field in Princeton.

But it took a throw to home by second baseman Hunter Spiegel and game-ending strikeout by reliever Jack Oester to finish off the Tiger victory.

“We’ve been getting some good conference wins. Feels really good,” Shaw said. “We’ve been playing real good baseball together. Tyler (Forristall) and Noah (Morton) dealed and we were able to get a couple runs behind them and able to shut them out at the end with Jack (Oester) coming in to close it out.”

First-year Tiger skipper Patrick Smith said it was a typical Tiger game.

“Nothing comes easy for us. I tell you what, we battled,” he said. “We talk about competing every single day no matter what the scoreboard says. If we keep competing, that stuff’s going to take care of themselves.

“We had a couple games last week where we didn’t hit very well. Sometimes you do when you have a low-scoring game. Got to score enough runs and tonight’s that’s exactly what we did. Came on one swing of the bat. It was a big hit by Braden. We pitched really, really well today and held them to one run. We’ll take it.”

Hayden Sayler led off the Tiger fifth with a single, taking second when the ball skipped past the E-P center fielder. Shaw followed with a blast over the left-center fence and suddenly the Tigers took a 2-0 lead.

“I was sitting slider the whole time and he threw it to me and I was able to catch it out front and drive it out to left-center field,” Shaw said. “You barely feel like you hit it. It’s awesome.”

“He hit one on Monday, too. He’s kind of in a little bit of a groove right now,” Smith said. “I think last week he had a couple of gap shots against Mendota, too. And that’s always nice when you can get some extra base hits and instead of trying to piece three or four singles in a row.”

“He’s been amazing. He’s been hot,” Oester said. “In the cages he’s been hitting great. He’s doing everything we want in a leadoff hitter and gets it going for us.”

The Panthers (6-5-1) did not go down quietly in the seventh.

Graden Church led off with a single and Richard Carreno reached on an error. Alastaire Sweetser, the E-P pitcher, drew a walk off Tiger reliever Morton to load the bases. Braedyn Frank followed with a single to left with Carreno scoring on a throwing error while courtesy runner Landon Vandewostine and Frank moved up an extra base.

Spiegel then made the defensive play of the game for the Tigers when he threw out Vandewostine trying to score on a grounder to second.

“He’s been playing a great second base. I’m very proud of him. He’s looked really good there,” Shaw said.

“That was big time. He’s been playing real good at second base for us,” Oester said.

“He’s done that two or three times already this year. He’s a heady kid,” Smith said. “We didn’t know who was going to play there at the beginning of the year. He’s kind of taken over that second base spot. And we have to play him there because he makes all the right plays.”

Evan Steimle walked to load the bases before Oester fired strike three past Copeland to end the game.

Oester knew he had no room for error.

“Coming in there and throwing strikes and making sure I’m not too plateful with my stuff. Just throw strikes and get it done,” he said.

E-P coach Jeff Wunderlich said Thursday’s game was similar to Monday’s when the Tigers scored two runs in the seventh to turn back the Panthers 5-2.

“When we played them Monday we hit into some double plays. This time they made the plays, too,” he said. “We didn’t get any timely hitting. Little things like that will hurt you in these close games.”

Catcher Stihl Brokaw led the Tigers (5-7) with a 2 for 3 day at the plate.

Forristall, the Tiger starter, pitched two scoreless innings, allowing one hit and walk with four strikeouts.

He turned the ball over to Morton, who scattered six hits and two walks with four strikeouts while allowing one earned run over 4⅓ innings for the win.

Frank went 3 for 4 for the Panthers while Carter Hadaway was 2 for 2 with a double.

Sweetser went the distance for E-P, scattering seven hits and a walk while striking out 12.