The first battle in the war for first place in the Intercounty Baseball League has gone to the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Jake Gallo and Cody Powell combined on a six-hitter as the Leafs edged the Brantford Red Sox 2-1 on Friday night in Brantford, taking over first place in the IBL with the victory.

Toronto (22-12) now leads Brantford (20-11) by a half game as the IBL season comes down to its final few days. But the war for first is far from over.

The Red Sox still have five regular season games left and the Leafs two, including a rematch on Monday night in Brantford after the Leafs end their regular season Sunday at 2 p.m. at Dominico Field at Christie Pits against the Ottawa Fat Cats on the team’s annual Cap Day.

“We got the win we needed to get tonight and that’s the main thing,” Leaf owner Jack Dominico said after a tense game Friday that had all the feel of a playoff tilt. “We got some great pitching and timely hitting, so now we can control our own destiny.”

If the Leafs do win their final two games, the best they can do is finish tied for first place. They still could finish as low as third place, however, as Barrie (20-13) is also still in the mix.

Gallo was outstanding, going 7 1/3 innings. He allowed one run on five hits with three strikeouts and no walks before Cody Powell finished up. Powell allowed just one hit in 1 2/3 innings with three strikeouts to pick up the save.

Dan Gibbons hit a solo homer in the second inning to open the scoring and Kern Watts forced a bases loaded walk in the seventh to account for the Toronto runs.

Gabe Ribas was the loser. He went 6 2/3 innings and allowed two runs on four hits with five strikeouts and three walks.

Tyler Patzalek’s sacrifice fly in the seventh inning accounted for the Red Sox lone run.

TORONTO 010 000 100 – 2-7-2

BRANTFORD 001 000 000 – 1-6-1