The Toronto Maple Leafs are one win away from the second round of the Intercounty Baseball League playoffs, and they can thank Darryl Craig for that.

Craig tossed a masterful complete game seven-hitter to lead the Leafs to a crucial 3-1 win over the London Majors in Game 5 of their opening round best-of-seven series Sunday afternoon at Christie Pits.

Toronto leads the series 3-2 and can advance to the IBL semi-finals with a win in Game 6 Monday night in London . If a seventh game in the series is necessary, it’ll be played Tuesday night at Christie Pits.

Leaf owner Jack Dominico makes a point of flying Craig in from his Chicago home for key games and that investment paid off big time on Sunday, as the veteran not only shut down the Majors, but saved Toronto ’s bullpen for the rest of the series.

“That was a big time pitching performance and he was in complete control the whole game,” Dominico said. “It was just a great ballgame too, a real pitcher’s battle.

“We’ve had to battle for this whole series, what with the weather and everything, and he came up big just when we really needed it.”

Winning the weather battle might be the toughest fight the Leafs still have on their hands, but the rainy weather finally broke for a few hours and the teams took advantage by playing a tight pitcher’s duel that was over in two hours and two minutes.

Craig carried a shutout into the ninth inning but then allowed a solo homer to Will Richards to lead off the ninth. However Craig showed his experience by retiring the next three hitters, including two by strikeout as he wiffed Ryan Cattrysse to end the game.

He wound up striking out six and walking none to win a pitching duel with London ace Pierre Miville-Deschenes.

Miville-Deschenes was also sharp, allowing three runs on seven hits with eight strikeouts and four walks in 7 1/3 innings. Josh Palmer got the last two outs of the game for the Majors.

Jeremy Walker drove in the game’s first run in the first inning with a single and that was all the offence until the bottom of the eighth, when the Leafs hit for two more runs on an RBI double by Brian Ivan and a sacrifice fly by Damon Topolie.

Dan Gibbons had three singles for the Leafs, who also managed just seven hits in the game.