Mount Saint Joseph ace Zac Stoll has been rounding into form over his past few starts.

No such luck for the Gilman baseball team's offense.

Stoll worked a ruthlessly efficient complete game, helping the No. 8 Gaels earn a Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference win over the visiting No. 9 Greyhounds, 5-2, on Thursday.

“I would say it's pretty similar to his last outing against South Carroll where he was pretty much in command most of the game,” Gaels coach Jody Harris said. “Today he made one mistake and the kid hit it out, but that's what happens in the MIAA. You make a mistake, you're going to get burned.”

Stoll's batterymate Jack Stilling went 3-for-3 with two doubles, including a two-run opposite-field drive as the Gaels (8-3, 2-2) compiled a four-run third inning.

That made it 5-0 for the right-hander, whose only mistake was an 0-2 fastball that John Fitzgerald took over the center-field fence for a two-run shot in the sixth.

Otherwise, Stoll strolled through large portions of the game, requiring only 80 pitches to complete the seven innings while striking out five and yielding only four hits and a walk.

“I was really spotting my pitches a lot more,” said Stoll, who consistently got one-pitch outs. “They definitely have some aggressive kids. Their mindset as a team is go hit the ball. And so, it was really, not taking advantage of that, but throwing strikes in early counts. I knew they were going to be able to swing at them.”

Fitzgerald had half his team's hits as the Greyhounds (5-7, 1-3) took their sixth straight loss overall. Maxwell Costes also reached base twice and worked two scoreless innings of relief for Gilman, which has scored seven runs in its past three games.

“We're not hitting. We're not scoring runs,” Greyhounds coach Larry Sheets said. “And that's not indicative of what I thought our identity was going to be.”

Alex Shafer allowed a run in two innings for the loss before reliever Michael Willis hit trouble in the third in what Sheets said was a planned pitch-by-committee contest.

Stoll never looked like he needed help from the bullpen, though he did require a key strikeout of Shafer to strand Costes and Fitzgerald in the first.

After Fitzgerald's blast in the sixth made it 5-2, Stoll caught Shafer looking to reclaim his momentum. The defense helped out in the seventh when Luke Hess dived and stabbed a sharply hit grounder for the second out and right fielder Ethan Gallagher made a fully extended diving catch to end the game.

The Gaels went up 1-0 in the second when Stilling doubled to left, reached third on Stoll's grounder and scored on Nick Caporlette's infield single.

It was 5-0 after the third after Shafer issued a single and two walks to load the bases for Stilling, who took a full-count fastball down the right-field line to drive in two. Stoll followed with a sacrifice fly, and Paul Kaschak singled in the Gaels' final run.

“He was the MVP of the JV,” Harris said of Stilling. “You don't know how that's going to translate to the varsity. But he just hits everything right off the head of the bat and it looks like a senior and he's just a junior.”